Chinese etiquette

• Dishes are usually prepared in such a way that each piece is bite-sized so if the item is too small or too big to be picked up by the chopsticks, then it is not designed to be eaten with the chopsticks.
• Chinese traditionally eat rice from a bowl. The rice bowl is raised to the mouth and the rice is shoveled into the mouth using the chopsticks. (Note that this Chinese etiquette is the exact opposite from the Japanese custom.) If Chinese rice is served on a plate, as is more common in the West, it is acceptable and more practical to eat it with a fork or spoon. It is quite tedious to try to pick up the rice, grain by grain, but some people will attempt to do this if they do not know that they are not expected to utilise the chopsticks in this manner.
• Do not stand chopsticks in a bowl of rice or anything else because the act resembles part of a traditional funeral rite.
• For the sake of hygiene, when obtaining food from the serving dish, the chopsticks may be inverted to the other ends to pick up the food.
  

Japanese etiquette

• In general, chopsticks should be used for eating and no other purpose. Do not point or gesture with chopsticks, and do not bang them on an object to catch the attention of someone or use them like drumsticks.
• Do not dig around in dishes for choice bits of food. Eat from the top and choose what is to be eaten before reaching with chopsticks (do not hover around or poke looking for special ingredients).
• Never stab or pierce food with chopsticks.
• Never stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice (or anything else, for that matter, but rice especially because the act resembles part of a funeral rite)
• Do not move dishes around with chopsticks.
• Do not lick or suck the ends of chopsticks.
• Do not let food drop off ends of chopsticks.
• Do not shovel food into your mouth with chopsticks. Soup bowls, but no other dishes or bowls are brought to the mouth in Japan. While the rice bowl is raised when eating, it is not brought to the mouth.
• Never touch food in a common dish with the pointed (eating) end of chopsticks, for hygienic reasons. Use the blunt end to transfer food from a common dish to your own plate or bowl (never your mouth).
• Never use chopsticks to transfer something to someone else's chopsticks or someone else's plate or bowl.
• Place pointed ends of the chopsticks on a chopstick rest when chopsticks are not being used.
• For the sake of hygiene, when obtaining food from the serving dish, the chopsticks may be inverted to the other ends to pick up the food.

Agora só tenho que aprender a segurar os pauzinhos.

Que seria da malta hiperactiva sem as leituras online?


How the Brain Creates the Mind; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Antonio R. Damasio; 6 Page(s)
We have long wondered how the conscious mind comes to be. Greater understanding of brain function ought to lead to an eventual solution
File size: 234 KB

The Problem of Consciousness; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Francis Crick and Christof Koch; 8 Page(s)
It is now being explored through the visual system - requiring a close collaboration among psychologists, neuroscientists and theorists
File size: 169 KB

Vision: A Window on Consciousness; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Nikos K. Logothetis; 8 Page(s)
In their search for the mind, scientists are focusing on visual perception - how we interpret what we see
File size: 250 KB

The Split Brain Revisited; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Michael S. Gazzaniga; 6 Page(s)
Groundbreaking work over four decades has led to ongoing insights about brain organization and consciousness
File size: 295 KB

Sex Differences in the Brain; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Doreen Kimura; 6 Page(s)
Men and women display patterns of behavioral and cognitive differences that reflect varying hormonal influences on brain development
File size: 152 KB

New Nerve Cells for the Adult Brain; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Gerd Kempermann and Fred H. Gage; 7 Page(s)
Contrary to dogma, the human brain does produce new nerve cells in adulthood. Can this lead to better treatments for neurological diseases?
File size: 185 KB

Sign Language in the Brain; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Gregory Hickok, Ursula Bellugi and Edward S. Klima; 8 Page(s)
How does the human brain process language? New studies of deaf signers hint at an answer
File size: 263 KB

The Meaning of Dreams; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Jonathan Winson; 8 Page(s)
Dreams may be crucial in mammalian memory processing. Important information acquired while awake may be reprocessed during sleep
File size: 232 KB

Emotion, Memory and the Brain; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Joseph E. LeDoux; 10 Page(s)
The neural routes underlying the formation of memories about primitive emotional experiences, such as fear, have been traced
File size: 415 KB

The Neurobiology of Fear; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Ned H. Kalin; 10 Page(s)
Researchers are teasing apart the processes in the brain that give rise to various fears in monkeys. The results may lead to new ways to treat anxiety in humans
File size: 360 KB

The Mind-Body Interaction in Disease; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by Esther M. Sternberg and Philip W. Gold; 8 Page(s)
The brain and the immune system continuously signal each other, often along the same pathways, which may explain how state of mind influences health
File size: 280 KB

The Puzzle of Conscious Experience; Scientific American Special Editions; The Hidden Mind; by David J. Chalmers, sidebar by Francis Crick and Christof Koch; 10 Page(s)
We are at last plumbing one of the most profound mysteries of existence. But knowledge of the brain alone may not get to the bottom of it
File size: 270 KB

(Dia de St. Brigid)

Saint Brigid of Ireland (Bridget, Bridgit, Brigit, Bride) (451- 525) was born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. Legend states that her parents were Dubhthach, pagan king of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pictish slave who had been baptized by Saint Patrick.

According to this legend, which suffers inconsistencies common to such legends, Brigid was named after one of the most powerful goddesses of the Pagan religion that Dubhthach practiced. Brigid was the goddess of fire, whose manifestations were song and poetry, which the Irish considered the flame of knowledge. Brigid supposedly became a virgin in service to the Goddess Brigid and eventually ascended to high priestess at the Kil Dara (the temple of the oak), a pagan sanctuary built from the wood of a tree sacred to the Druids. In 468, she followed St. Mel of Armagh to Meath and converted to Christianity.

Another version of her life states that upon reaching maturity, she vexed her father by being overly generous to the poor and needy with his milk, butter, and flour. Finally, she gave away his jewel-encrusted sword to a leper. At this point, it was decided that her disposition was best suited for a nun and she was sent to a convent. The legend does not preserve when or how her hitherto pagan father became amenable to such acts. Other tales likewise exist, and the only agreement between the various stories is that a girl was born to an Irish king named Dubhtach and that her name was Brigid.

Around 470 she founded a Christian double monastery (nuns and monks) at Kildare (Cill-Dara) by either converting the pagan sanctuary or by building on unused ground there, depending upon the particular story consulted. She went on to found a school of art at the monastery where the Book of Kildare, a famous illuminated manuscript, was created. She died at Kildare on February 1 and is buried at Downpatrick with St. Columcille and St. Patrick, with whom she is co-patron of Ireland. Similar to the association between St. Patrick and the shamrock, a tiny cross made of rushes was linked with St. Brigid.

E para ouvir...

Wing Chun

*snip*

Wing Chun is not just a collection of unrelated techniques. It has a core set of guiding principles which allows practitioners to decide what is correct or incorrect Wing Chun. This keeps the art a pure and integrated fighting system, while allowing direction for refinement that is consistent with its principles.

These guiding principles are strictly practical and is part of the reason for Wing Chun's uniquely scientific and logical approach to fighting. It is likely that Bruce Lee managed to develop Jeet Kune Do from Wing Chun because Wing Chun trained him to think about fighting in a scientific way.

All Wing Chun techniques have a practical purpose. There are no flowery moves or graceful techniques that mimic animal movements. To the uninitiated, Wing Chun can appear less effective when compared with more dramatic styles. Like Hsing Yi, another linear style, Wing Chun practitioners pride themselves on plain-looking but effective techniques. The crowd-pleasing elaborate moves used by Bruce Lee in his movies are not real Wing Chun or Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee consciously choreographed more flamboyant moves to entertain his fans. His actual fighting style was simple, direct and effective.

Following this utilitarian approach, the names of Wing Chun techniques are purely descriptive. For example - bounce hand (tan sau), wing arm (bong sau), slapping hand (pak sau). Wing Chun terminology is traditionally rendered in the Cantonese dialect of Chinese.

*snip*

Próximo destino em carteira depois da aventura deste ano: Gwlad yr Iâ (Welsh), Ijsland (Dutch), Innis Tìle (Scots Gaelic), an Íoslainn (Irish), Island (Czech, Danish, Estonian, German, Serbian, Slovak, Swedish), Island - איסלאַנד (Yiddish), Islanda (Italian, Maltese, Romansh), Islande (French), Islandë (Albanian), Islandia (Bahasa Indonesia, Basque, Latin, Polish, Spanish), Islàndia (Catalan), Islandija - Иcлaндия (Russian), Islandhía - Ισλανδία (Greek), Islândia (Portuguese), Islandija (Lithuanian), Islandska (Lower Sorbian), Islanti (Finnish), Izland (Hungarian), İzlanda (Turkish)

David Icke, o caça-reptilóides

Icke returned to the limelight in the late 1990s with a book, The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World. In it he claimed to have discovered that the world was being run by a New World Order, controlled by a race of reptilian humanoids or reptiloid aliens (he does not state what exactly they are, only giving possible explanations

"My own resaerch [sic] suggests that it is from another dimension, the lower fourth dimension, that the reptilian control and manipulation is primarily orchestrated. ...
Other people know this as the lower astral dimension, the legendary home of demons and malevolent antities [sic] in their black magic rituals.... ").
According to Icke, their 'hybrid reptilian-human DNA' allows some of these aliens to change from reptilian to human form if they can consume human blood, and he has even drawn parallels with the 1980s science fiction series V, in which Earth is taken over by reptiloid aliens disguised as humans.

Michael Barkun, in his 2003 study of conspiracy theory subculture, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America, writes that Icke is "the most fluent of conspiracy authors, which gives his writings a clarity rarely found in the genre."

The group, known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, implicates practically every world leader from Britain's late Queen Mother to Bill Clinton as either a reptilian, or working for them (he suggests that they are slave-like victims of multiple personality disorder).

"The Rothschilds, Rockefellers, the British royal family, and the ruling political and economic families of the US and the rest of the world come from these SAME bloodlines.
...
It is not because of snobbery, it is to hold as best they can a genetic structure - the reptilian-mammalian DNA combination which allows them to "shape-shift".
You will also see references on the site to "shape-shifting", the phenomena in which witnesses have reported seeing people (most often those in positions of power), transform before their eyes, from a human form to a reptilian one and then back again.
...
Former US president, President George Herbert Walker Bush, incidentally, is mentioned more than any other person in my experience in relation to shape-shifting."
The evidence for this is often considered absurd by non-adherents; for instance, his apparent claim that the car-rental company Avis is a front for the Brotherhood because Avis spelled backwards is Siva, a member of the Hindu pantheon. However, his supporters tend to concentrate on the volume of other evidence he presents, such as the recurrence of the reptilian archetype in myths worldwide.

For example, the Ancient Sumerians worshipped apparently reptilian gods called the Anunnaki, and the Ancient Maya of Mexico claim that all their knowledge of the heavens came from their god of wisdom and astrology, Kukulcan, sometimes depicted in Maya art as a reptilian humanoid with a crest of feathers on his head (this god later became the Aztec god, the Plumed Serpent, Quetzalcoatl). The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun was swallowed by a snake in the evening and traveled through its bowels at night to return the next morning. Dragons played significant roles in both European and Asian culture. Judeo-Christian religion contains the concept of the 'serpent' introducing an innocent Adam and Eve to original sin and causing their fall from Paradise, and snake handling is part of some Christian sects' worship.

Icke links all of his data, both from mainstream sources, and from speculation, together into a set of grand conspiracy theories. The sheer volume of his writings, and the interconnectedness of his ideas, are enough to convince many of his supporters that "something must be going on". They regard skeptics as being either ill-informed or as stooges of the conspiracy.

He has since published a number of additional books following this theme at various levels of detail, the first being too large to be read by most casual readers. His latest work continues in this thread, an attempt to explain the September 11, 2001 attacks as being a part of this reptile-led conspiracy, with the reptiloid George W. Bush playing the key role.

Reno/Portman/Besson

Léon

Vermeer, "A Lição de Música"

Dust in the wind.

(Saggitarius star cloud)

Thanks for all you've done
I've missed you for so long
I can't believe you're gone
You still live in me
I feel you in the wind
You guide me constantly

I've never knew what it was to be alone, no
Cause you were always there for me
You were always home waiting
And now I come home and I miss your face so
Smiling down on me
I close my eyes to see

And I know, you're a part of me
And it's your song that sets me free
I sing it while I feel I can't hold on
I sing tonight cause it comforts me

I carry the things that remind me of you
In loving memory of
The one that was so true
You were as kind as you could be
And even though you're gone
You still mean the world to me

I've never knew what it was to be alone, no
Cause you were always there for me
You were always home waiting
But now I come home and it's not the same, no
It feels empty and alone
I can't believe you're gone

And I know, you're a part of me
And it's your song that sets me free
I sing it while I feel I can't hold on
I sing tonight cause it comforts me

I'm glad he set you free from sorrow
I'll still love you more tomorrow
And you will be here with me still

All you did you did with feeling
And You always found the meaning
And you always will
And you always will
And you always will

And I know, you're a part of me
And it's your song that sets me free
I sing it while I feel I can't hold on
I sing tonight cause it comforts me

- Alter Bridge

Mark Tremonti

Forgetfulness

Forgetfulness is like a song
That, freed from beat and measure, wanders.
Forgetfulness is like a bird whose wings are reconciled,
Outspread and motionless, --
A bird that coasts the wind unwearyingly.

Forgetfulness is rain at night,
Or an old house in a forest, -- or a child.
Forgetfulness is white, -- white as a blasted tree,
And it may stun the sybil into prophecy,
Or bury the Gods.

I can remember much forgetfulness.

- Hart Crane

Sétima Instância, Livro Segundo

João César das Neves,

a prova acabada em como devemos separar os diversos aspectos de um indivíduo.


- Qual é critério que utiliza para comprar os livros para os seus filhos?

Conversamos muito...neste momento há muitos livros que nós já lemos quando tínhamos a idade deles e que é importante eles lerem. Também conversamos muito com eles sobre os temas que lhes interessam. Às vezes vamos lendo os livros que eles querem ler para ver se são boas escolhas, para depois conversámos com eles. Tem que ser muito da decisão deles, não podemos ser nós a impor...

- Respeita o interesse deles, é isso?

Tem que ser muito do interesse deles, mas não podemos deixá-los à solta a ler “qualquer coisa”.

- Concorda que a quantidade de livros publicados, dificulta um bocadinho a escolha dos pais?

Sim. Isso implica que haja muito trabalho e acompanhamento da parte dos pais. Por isso é que uma iniciativa como a vossa é importante, até para os pais saberem o que vai aparecendo. Falando de coisas concretas. Por exemplo, «O senhor dos anéis» e o «Harry Potter» são livros que todos os miúdos andam a ler. Mas são duas realidades diferentes. «O senhor dos anéis» é uma obra clássica da literatura, aí não temos problemas nenhuns; já o «Harry Potter» quando apareceu tivemos que fazer algum trabalho para ver como é que aquilo era. No final das leituras tivemos que conversar com eles, já que claramente este é um livro mais comercial, com muito menos interesse cultural. Há uma grande atracção, proibir não dá o melhor resultado , mas tem que se acompanhar.


- Essencialmente defende um trabalho de acompanhamento que os pais devem fazer às leituras dos mais novos?

Sim, tem que ser com muito acompanhamento. Depois de vez em quando falamos de assuntos, sugerimos este ou outro livro que seja assim mais engraçado. Oferecemos os livros dos Santos patronímicos deles. Para lerem as vidas dos santos...às vezes tentamos puxá-los para outros tipos de leituras. Mas também não podemos estar muito pressionados com isso. E depois é preciso saber ceder porque os jogos de computador e a televisão são muito atraentes e resistir nessas coisas é capaz de não ser lá muito boa ideia. Tem que ser mais pelo exemplo do que pela proibição.

- Tem preocupações sociais na sua forma de ver o mundo?

Se tenho uma preocupação é a de olhar o mundo à nossa volta de maneira diferente. Da maneira como Cristo olha, e que é essencialmente isto: mudar o assunto do mundo. Nós hoje somos muito chamados a fazer aquilo que o mundo faz, mas de maneira diferente. Mas não é essa a nossa função! Nós não somos iguais aos outros nem melhores. Não! Nós somos outra coisa, nós pertencemos a um “Homem Novo”. Não é fazer aquilo que o mundo quer que a gente faça, (também é, claro!), mas antes pensar essencialmente num outro mundo. Estamos aqui mas não somos daqui! É isso que eu tento basicamente apresentar quando escrevo: formas de olhar para o mundo que façam ver aquela face que o dia-a-dia não permite contemplar! E depois não é para fazermos coisas diferentes. É para continuarmos a andar nos autocarros como toda a gente, almoçar como os outros, e trabalhar como todas as pessoas...




Holy fuck.

2, 6

Newt Gingrich is Chairman of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm that specializes in transformational change, with offices in Atlanta and Washington, DC. He serves as a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and is an Honorary Chairman of the NanoBusiness Alliance. Newt is also a news and political analyst for the Fox News Channel.

Newt Gingrich is a leading advocate of increased Federal funding for basic science research. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Science Coalition's first Science Pioneer award, given to him for his outstanding contributions to educating the public about science and its benefits to society.



Este deixo à vossa boa vontade. Creepy as they come. De fugir. Horrivelmente viável entre nós.

2.5 TDi 24v

John Wayne Bobbit.

Porra, "John Wayne", like the fuckin' Duke. Marion, that is.

Este gajo teve o xoriço arrancado à má-fila pela esposa, chacal fêmea, criatura ululante. Não obstante, ganhou uns trocos numa pornocena em que fazia papel de si próprio, go figure.

Immediate section 8.

2.4

Graciano Saga (first right-to-left).

Go go Danbury United go!

O que torna Portugal uma Nação Global. Um globo nacional. A cena mundial.

Muhaha!

2.3

Suleiman Abu Ghaith. Autoexplicativo!!!

LOVERS

Oh miserable patrons of the concert hall,
I watch you as you listen to a piano piece
Ostensibly playing it on the arms of your seat
With fingers twisted, aching and arthritic,
Aping, poor wretches, the distinguished soloist
On stage or, further back, the famous composer,
Ostensibly playing the tune, beating the rhythm
Conducting it for all the world with head or foot.

Truth to tell, what frustrated composers or soloists we all are;
And indeed what frustrated lovers
– In spite of all the loves we may have known – ;
Frustrated yes, but not resigned, playing as we do
Into our ripe old age on the arms of our seat
Or even on the wood of our last bed, the same old tune
Like an answer to a dream long unfulfilled
And on matter that fails to respond to our fingers.

- Nikos Fokas

Cromo 2, II Série

João Cravinho

Este homem pronunciou um dia a seguinte enormidade (a propósito da detecção de uma turista alemã supostamente carregadinha de Ebola, num vôo da Lufthansa com escala em Portugal):

"Portugal é um país do 1º Mundo, essas coisas não constituem ameaça directa para nós."

Imagino a carga viral toda a encolher-se de medo, os RNAzinhos a sussurrar uns para os outros, "pá, bute, aqui não, bora comer antes uns kiribatenses que estes aqui são do 1º mundo".

Hoje li um gajo qualquer, p'raí com carta há 4 ou 5 anos, que se mostrava indignado por não poder ir sossegado a 160 no AX dele, porque tinha um monovolume a cheirar-lhe a traseira. Alguém lhe há-de explicar que travar, bater, curvar, guinar, reagir, e até ver, ouvir e cheirar para quem conduz um monovolume novo, não é a mesma coisa que para quem se deixa levar num AX. E que 15 ou 20 anos de carta não são 4 ou 5. E ainda que a estupidez sai cara.

História da Medicina Legal pelo magnífico JE Pinto da Costa.

Primus inter Pares

By popular demand, a caderneta da Caverna segue para a segunda época!



Sun Myung Moon (born January 6, 1920)

is the founder of the Unification Church (established on May 1, 1954, in Seoul, South Korea). With his wife Hak Ja Han, he is co-leader of the Unification Movement.

Moon's followers see him as a new Messiah, the second coming of Christ, commissioned by Jesus to complete the divine mission of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Opponents regard him as a cult leader convicted of tax crimes.

In 2003, Rev. Moon announced that the representatives of the five major religions — as well as several dozen dead U.S. presidents communicating from the Spirit World — declared him to be "the savior and messiah of humanity".

In March 2004, at an awards banquet attended by US congressmen, a top Moon aide called Mr. and Mrs. Moon "the King and the Queen of Peace!"


E dizia o animal:

"In the final fulfillment of human history, therefore, God's work of restoration is the restoration of True Parents first, liberating humanity from its orphan status. Today this is the central dispensational work of God — to bestow True Parents upon mankind, to create the original family of man centering on God and true love."

Eh cum caraças!!! Muhahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

O 12º Cromo

General Idi Amin Dada Oumee (May 17, 1928? - August 16, 2003) was the military dictator of Uganda from January 25, 1971, to April 13, 1979.

Idi Amin was born in the Kakwa tribe, near Koboko in the West Nile Arua district. The year is not known, due to a lack of birth records (sources suggest anything from 1923 to 1928). Some sources suggest he may have celebrated his birthday on January 1. He was brought up by his mother, who was thought to be a witch doctor, and received little formal education.

Amin took tribalism, a long-standing problem in Uganda, to its extreme by ordering the persecution of Acholi, Lango, and other tribes. There are reports of the tortures and murders of 100,000 to 300,000 Ugandans during Amin's presidency.

Amin fled to exile, first in Libya, where sources are divided on whether he remained until December 1979, or 1989, before finding final asylum in Saudi Arabia. He opened a bank account in Jeddah in 1979, and resided there with his four wives until his death, subsisting on a government stipend. The new Ugandan government chose to keep him exiled, saying that Amin would face war crimes charges if he ever returned.

On July 20, 2003, his favorite wife reported that he was near death in a coma at the King Faisal specialist hospital in Jeddah. She pleaded with Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni that he might return to die in Uganda. The reply was that if he returned, he would have to "answer for his sins". Idi Amin died in Saudi Arabia on August 16, 2003, and was buried in Jeddah.

On August 17, 2003 David Owen told an interviewer for BBC Radio 4 that while he was British Foreign Secretary (1977-1979) he had suggested to have Amin assassinated to end his regime of terror. His idea was directly rejected. Owen said "Amin's regime was the worst of all. It's a shame that we allowed him to keep in power for so long".

Sigam os cromos, tomo XI

Tomás de Torquemada

entra en la Historia por haber sido el primer Inquisidor General del Tribunal del Santo Oficio y el que puso a la firma de los Reyes Católicos el decreto de expulsión de los judíos, pero no sabemos bien quién fue. Las referencias sobre su vida provienen de la crónica de los dominicos que Fray Juan de la Cruz escribió en 1567 y cuya credibilidad es limitada. Como a casi toda persona conocida del siglo XV, se le atribuye linaje judaico pero no sabemos si el regidor Don Pedro Fernández de Torquemada o su señora Doña Mencía Ortega, sus padres, eran cristianos nuevos. Hay tanto empeño en afirmarlo hoy como en borrarlo ayer. Y de linaje converso encontramos personajes con tanta variedad de conductas como en el resto de la sociedad española de la época. El origen no hace la trayectoria.

Torquemada, hombre de religión más que fe, es en realidad un producto típico de la endiablada sociedad española de la segunda mitad del siglo XV. Pero por muy decidido que fuese, nunca resultó decisivo, aunque a veces pareciera decisorio. Desde el nacimiento, en 1420, hasta la muerte en el convento abulense de Santo Tomás, en 1498 -otro aniversario para el zurrón noventayochista: quinientos años de la muerte de Torquemada-, su vida se parece a la de muchos hombres de aquella Castilla con tanta fuerza en su gente como indefinición en sus caminos. Isabel la Católica es el imán de los cambios y realizaciones trascendentales de ese final del Cuatrocientos y no es casualidad que Torquemada sea uno de los tres confesores importantes de su vida: un dominico, un jerónimo y un franciscano; el duro Torquemada, el santo Talavera, el severo Cisneros. Para llegar al nivel de Cisneros le faltaba a Torquemada categoría intelecutal -sólo era bachiller en Teología, mientras don Francisco Jiménez era amigo de Nebrija y trató de fichar a Erasmo para su Universidad Complutense-, pero le sobraban, como al futuro cardenal regente, ambición, seguridad en sí mismo y una austeridad que rondaba el exhibicionismo. Más que una ética, el rigor de esta minoría de la iglesia castellana, reformista antes del protestantismo, era casi una estética. Torquemada representaba una línea dura con respecto a los conversos sospechosos de judaizar -es decir, de mezclar la fe de Moisés con la de Cristo mediante dobles ritos o síntesis heréticas-, mietnras Talavera representaba la línea moderada, tradicional y mayoritaria en el alto clero, la naciente burguesía ciudadana y la nobleza. Fueron los disturbios creados a propósito de los conversos los que hicieron cambiar lentamente y siempre detrás de los acontecimientos esta política. Y fue Fernando, de linaje converso por su madre, Juana Enríquez, el que más decididamente encabezó el movimiento cuando lo consideró irreversible, aunque para ello tuviera que recurrir al Papa -que detestaba- y al antiguo confesor de su esposa, amén de pelearse con todo el reino de Aragón.

Eso es indudable, pese a todas las leyendas negras acumuladas. También es cierto que los católicos franceses mataron más protestantes en una sola noche, la de San Bartolomé, que el Santo Oficio en tres siglos y que los alemanes quemaron más brujas en un año que la Inquisición en toda su historia. Pero la máquina de intolerancia, sospecha, terror y delación accionada por Torquemada entorpeció la vida intelectual española de forma trágica. Duró más en la memoria que en el tiempo. Nos marcó. Torquemada no murió arrepentido ni de quemar herejes ni de expulsar judíos, como se ha dicho, pero sí viejo, paranoico, avariento y miserable Tras lograr la expulsión de los judíos, perdió la salud y volvió a Avila. Negó su hacienda al convento de San Pablo y tuvo que desenterrar a sus padres para llevárselos a Santo Tomás. Consiguió del Papa Alejandro VI una bula para que allí rigieran estatutos de limpieza de sangre y pasó sus últimos años rapaceando fondos para la que fue su tumba. Durante la guerra de la Independencia ésta fue profanada y aventadas sus cenizas. No se averiguó la identidad de los autores del hecho. Demasiados sospechosos.