In Georgia the dead could vote. Legally.

Listening to a lecture given by President Jimmy Carter on a podcast recently (I was on the bus, and it was a long journey!) I enjoyed a story he told about his first term as a state senator where he participated in a debate on voting reform in 1963. Georgia, he said, had a unique view of elections, where counties were counted, as opposed to the votes in them, and so it meant that one vote in a rural white district was equal to 99 votes in a black urban district. But what really surprised him was an amendment from a senator from aptly named Enigma county proposing that no person who was dead more than three years should be permitted to vote. When quizzed on the proposal, the senator pointed out that the family of the deceased would have a pretty good idea how the deceased would have cast their ballot. The amendment passed.

I can imagine Fianna Fail pondering something like this at the moment. 

Fianna Fail Post Power Trauma Disorder (FFPPTD)

Some of them still have not contracted it. You still meet a dwindling number of Fianna Failers who are in total denial about what has happened, holding out like Charlton Heston in The Omega Man and just hoping that things will somehow go back to the way they are. You can see that they are in denial because they still use phrases like “It’ll be a disaster for the country if Joan Burton is minister for finance.” Really? What will she do? Wreck the banking system? Go on her knees to the IMF? Nationalise bank debts? Let public spending get out of control? End our economic independence? They look blankly at you, as if their minds are like that old game “Mousetrap” and they are waiting for their single transferable idea to roll into place. It does, and then they say things like “Yes, but the Fine Gael Party (Only FFers call them that. Even Fine Gael just call themselves Fine Gael) and Labour (Labour always refer to themselves as the The Labour Party, like a peacock trying to make himself look bigger) have marginally different policies!”

Then you meet the FFers who have full blown FFPTD. The cockiness, the “you are mere parties, we are a national movement” is long gone. Instead, you can see it in their eyes, the nervous flicker of the regularly beaten dog that just wants to be loved. Being a former Progressive Democrat, I can recognise many of the symptoms, although even we were never actively hated (most people had no opinion about the PDs, regarding them like the Abbey Theatre. They’d heard of it, alright, but other people used it.) to this degree, or indeed to the degree that the left like to believe. And worse is to come: Polling day will unleash a burst of national euphoria as Fianna Fail is partially destroyed. Don’t be surprised if a small crowd actually attack Fianna Fail headquarters, the way a mob stormed Stasi headquarters in Berlin, and party members are founded curled up in a ball in the corner, reading a heavily thumbed copy of Stephen Collins’s The Power Game, and rocking themselves, muttering to be taken away to their special place.

Post election, it’ll really hit. Being not just rejected, but a minor party. For the first time ever, not having a party leader who is guaranteed to be Taoiseach. Being actually afraid of Sinn Fein, who will provide far more coherent opposition to the new government, because the FF front bench will be made up of exhausted people who will have every query answered with “Well, we wouldn’t have to do this if you hadn’t wrecked the country.” And that’s assuming, by the way, that the new Dail doesn’t assemble a committee to investigate, in public, the actions of the last government, and spend the next two years dragging frightened looking former FF cabinet ministers up in front of television cameras to relive the trauma, blow by blow.

There is one upside, however. You can only get FFPPTD once. Those who have had it may come out of the fever with an appreciation that they have survived it, and look upon life with a new lease, willing to try and do things they never would have dreamed off before, like turfing Bertie out of the party and getting serious about ethics. What doesn’t (politically) kill you can only make you stronger. 

What the Abortion issue says about the Irish.

The Irish are not the only country that has issues with abortion. Obviously, it’s an issue in the US, but even in countries like Britain it rears its head as an issue as pro-life Tory MPs seek to restrict it.

But what is uniquely Irish about the abortion debate is the absolute point blank refusal of Irish society to confront it head on. On top of that, there is the permeation of a “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” stance throughout the whole debate, where being openly hypocritical on aspects of the issue is totally accepted.

Consider this: The Irish have voted FIVE times on the issue of abortion, yet not once have they been actually asked to legalise abortion. In 1983, they were to insert a ban on abortion into the consitution, which merely confirmed what Irish law said in practice, and added that the life of the unborn was equal to that of the mother and therefore abortion was not permitted. In 1992, as a result of a Supreme Court ruling which ruled that abortion was legal if the life of the mother was threatened in certain circumstances, the anti-abortion Irish voted that people could access information on abortion services elsewhere, and travel to avail of those services elsewhere. In other words, the Irish were now against abortion on a geographical basis, in that what was a precious life one moment was, in the eyes of the Irish people, disposable genetic material one foot past the Three Mile Limit. Continue reading

Christmas Treats for Someone: Boston Legal

Such is the multiplicity of TV channels now available to us, it is very possible that you can miss some real gems, and Boston Legal is one of them.

This David E. Kelly created (Husband of Michelle Pfeiffer and creator of Ally McBeal and The Practice) show stars William Shatner as the ultra right wing, formerly brilliant, womanising client-shooting possibly Mad Cow Disease infected egomaniac lawyer Denny Crane in the role that will actually challenge  Captain Kirk as the role he is remembered for. In short, Shatner steals the show, and with Candace Bergen, James Spader and others putting in bravura displays, you have to see it to see how good he is.

The show is a “dramedy”, and sometimes goes off on a whacky tangent (The actors occasionally refer to the fact it is a TV show whilst still in character) but it tends to lean more on the comedy than the drama, and is razor sharp in its cultural and political observations.

Sinn Fein to introduce compulsory Irish for welfare recipients.

Louth Sinn Fein candidate Gerry Adams MP, MLA has announced details of Sinn Fein’s commitment to the Irish language. “The problem is, most Irish people do not get enough encouragement during their day to day lives to appreciate our beautiful native tongue. What this new policy will do will be to ensure that welfare recipients will learn to realise that the language is not only part of our rich heritage, but an actual vital part of what it will mean to be Irish under a Sinn Fein government. People will see just how vital it is when they try to collect their dole.”

In the North, Sinn Fein have announced a deal with the DUP whereby a similar provision will be made to encourage Ulster-Scots. As part of the agreement, free DVDs of Rab C. Nesbitt and various Billy Connolly shows will distributed to homes to assist in learning the dialect.   

An Occasional Guide to Irish Politics: The Pro-Life Hypocrite.

He doesn’t go anywhere without his rosary beads, given that a substantial amount of his time isn’t spent in the Seanad chamber but going to the funerals of the relatives of his electorate, county councillors. Out come the beads, after he arrives tactically late, and then it’s up to the front of the church to ensure that no one is left in any doubt about his piety. There isn’t a bishop he isn’t on golfing terms with.

Every few months his parliamentary researcher, a unibrowed young man with body odour issues and an office holder in Youth Defence, will concoct some sort of statement for him to suggest that the EU/IMF/The Late Late Show is encouraging murdering babies or “the gays”. Misinterpreting rulings from Europe is now a speciality, although on Europe he plays both ends, voting for whatever the treaty the party whip tells him, and then voicing his concerns in “Alive!”

Of course, when he got his secretary pregnant at the Ard Fheis, she was on the first plane over to England, and F**k the rights of the unborn. Sure, in the eyes of his enemies it looked like a straight forward case of rape, but in his mind, the little harlot took advantage of his inebriated state and seduced him. After all, she hadn’t put the chain on the door of her room in the B&B, nor blocked the handle with a chair. Sure, that was practically inviting him in, wasn’t it?

US Congressman to hold hearing on Irish-American “Radicalization”.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the incoming head of the House committee on Homeland Security, is to hold hearings on the radicalization of the Irish-American community, after alleging that law enforcement officials have suggested that elements of the Irish-American community were being less than co-operative. You can read the story here.

Oh, wait, my mistake. Remove “Irish-American” and replace with “Muslim”. Sorry! How silly of me. Sure, what would elements of the Irish-American community know about supporting terrorism?

Repeats.

The more astute of you will notice that I occasionally “repeat” a post. I do this because I receive emails from less frequent readers who feel that I am posting material faster than they can read it, as such. As a result, I repost posts that I feel are worth reposting because a) I liked them(!) and b) so many events in Irish politics are so repetitive (How we deal with scandals, for example) that I almost have a universal one-size-fits-all opinion for them.

I will continue to attempt to post new stuff at least during the week, and occasionally at weekends.

Finally, let me just say how appreciative I am of the people who do read and comment and email me about stuff on the blog, even those who disagree with nearly everything I say, from their eurosceptic lair (You know who you are). I try to accomodate people’s requests, post suitable guest blogs (Always open to suggestions) and to the best of my knowledge I have only ever refused to post one reader comment, from a chap who wanted to post what can only be described as a tract. I have edited some comments, in the interests of libel, but aside from that everything goes up. 

When I started it, it was mostly as an outlet for mates of mine to read my regular rants, and when it supassed 100 readers, I remember thinking “Do I actually know 100 people?”. Now it’s in the thousands, which is still very modest for a blog but far, far more than I ever expected.

So, thanks.