Lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, goes the conventional wisdom. As with many things though, the conventional wisdom is mistaken. Lie down with dogs and, as the Progressive Democrats found to their cost, the dog will most likely eat you. It’s easy to point to the last election as the moment when …
Monthly Archive: September 2008
Sep 15
Equality
Eileen Flynn died last week. Eileen Flynn came to public notice during the early eighties. Eileen was a teacher in a convent school. She lived with Richie Roche, a separated man. Divorce was illegal, Eileen and Richie couldn’t married. Shortly after Eileen had a child, she was fired by the nuns running the school where …
Sep 13
Fighting Back
I haven’t a clue what happened in the world today. I picked up a copy of the Irish Times to check the jobs listings in just case there was anything interesting going, but apart from Doonesbury, I didn’t read a word of it. Today was too important a day to worry about news. My mother …
Sep 12
The Arfur Daly School of Economics
Ireland woke up this morning to the news that the Asgard II had sunk off the French coast, fortunately without loss of life. The sail training brigantine, commissioned in 1981 and built in Arklow, was a traditional sailing ship owned by the Irish State, but despite popular misconceptions, it was not a naval vessel. Instead, …
Sep 10
Pig Ignorant
‘Let’s just list this for a second.’ ‘John McCain says he’s for change too.’ ‘Except – So I guess his whole angle is, “watch out George Bush, except for economic policy, healthcare policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy, and Karl Rove style politics, we’re really going to shake things up in Washington”.’ ‘That’s not …
Sep 09
Window Cleaning
Today is Patch Tuesday, the day when Microsoft issues security patches and bug fixes for its software. This month’s update contains eight critically rated updates, which repair problems with Windows, Office, Media Player, Internet Explorer 6, and SQL Server, among others. One of the patches is designed to fix problems with Graphics Device Interface (GDI+), …
Sep 08
ConCERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research – better known as CERN – plans to press a Big Red Button on Wednesday, accelerating protons to within a whisker of the speed of light then smashing them against each other to recreate conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang. Naturally, this has brought the doomsayers …
Sep 05
Lump It
Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar wants to give unemployed immigrants a lump sum if they agree to leave the country. Fianna Fáil TD Thomas Byrne was delighted to pounce on the idea, from a member of the same party that last week called for ‘segregation‘ in schools, denouncing it as a policy ‘in the dishonourable tradition …
Sep 05
Handheld
Sometimes, things are too cool for their own good. The Asus Eee is an excellent idea. It promoted open source computing (at least in its earliest incarnations), showcased some cool technologies in order to pare back costs to the bone. But the Eee quickly showed its commercial roots. Rather than concentrating on the neat idea …
Sep 03
Home Sweet Home
Do you know your neighbours? According to a survey organised by the Labour Party, more than half of those living in the counties surrounding Dublin aren’t involved with their community. Home is simply somewhere to go in the evenings to sleep for many people in Kildare, Meath, Louth and Wicklow. And despite what you might …