I think that this goes under the category of on-the-job training. I asked David if I could join the posting team here, and in a moment of weakness he said yes earlier today. Now. like a minor leaguer just flown up to Yankee Stadium, I want to get right into the game.
The inner workings of squarespace are different from the blogger guts that I’m used to, but they seem intuitive.
Above, what I think is a lovely version of “Long Black Veil” by Johnny Cash and a young girl from Saskatchewan named Joni Mitchell from “The Johnny Cash Show”, which aired from 1969 to 1971.
I found this a couple of days ago, when playing around on youtube. To me, youtube’s main benefit is that there is just so much old stuff there, not just music either, things you won’t find anywhere else. Play a little free association with youtube’s search function, and I’ll bet you find a little treasure that you weren’t even looking for.
What arms? They were all decommissioned (gulp) weren’t they?
A HAUL of Semtex military explosive and detonators seized by gardai in Co Meath last week is believed to have come from an arms dump that the Provisional IRA retained after the decommissioning process.
No!
The disclosure could have serious ramifications for Sinn Fein and the IRA, which claimed it destroyed its entire arsenal of weapons three years ago in an historic move that allowed republicans to share power with unionists in Northern Ireland.
Didn’t everyone believe those mass-murdering psychopaths when they claimed to be good boys now? I cannot tell you how shocked I am at this news.
The disclosure that IRA members appeared to have retained stockpiles of weapons and explosives will be unsettling for the Democratic Unionist party, which recently re-started the Stormont power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein ….. Jeffrey Donaldson, a DUP minister, said: “…..We were given assurances the IRA had decommissioned its weapons. It’s yet another reason for the Provisional IRA to completely disband.”
And who can doubt the word of mass-murdering psychopaths?In other news, my cat is laughing.
The usual suspects sat around wittering on about how unjust it all was, and how their various sons didn’t deserve to be held hostage by Iraqi terrorists, and how they’d been forgotten, and how sad it all was, especially at Christmas!
I am of course referring to the five British hostages held since September 2007. a ‘computer expert’ and four ‘bodyguards’ were abducted from the Iraqi Finance Ministry, and have not been seen since. The kidnappers have demanded the release of Mahdi Army commanders from an American prison, and have released two videos which seek to advise that their captives are still alive.
I may be in a minority in my opinions on this particular item , but quite frankly I have very little time for people who went to possibly one of the most dangerous places on this planet for ‘the money’. As far as I am concerned, they got exactly what they deserved. Just as Ken Bigley, a Brit who ended up dead after heading to reap the ‘cash in hand’ found out, the reality of Iraq is somewhat different to that in the job adverts.
American and British soldiers are in Iraq because their political masters said it had to be done, and soldiers are paid to take risks. But such holy fools like Norman Kember, kidnapped and then unfortunately released to burden the airwaves with their so-called ‘stories’, just tend to make cynics such as myself yawn and reach for the remote to find something less grinding on the ears.
‘All we want is their safe return’, we are endlessly told in repeat slot after repeat. All I want is an end to this slightly tawdry story, played to an audience who really don’t want to know!
Yes, when I see what a great job he has done running California – into the dirt – I suppose he feels he is ideally qualified! Thank goodness the US Constitution will terminate any such ambitions. Ah-nold is a RINO and he has acheived the impossible in making his predecessor Dem Gray Davis seem like a man of iron will and deep principle. I‘m all for smart tech when it comes to protecting the environment but Arnie comes across an evagelical on this one issue whilst the State is going bankrupt on every other! Wonder what Californians reckon to him?Even more importantly, wonder what the GOP thinks of him – an action hero or a girly-man?
Excellent insight here at Letters from a Tory detailing the absolute folly of the current child welfare system. The bottom line is that the more you subsidise it, the more you get!
Danny McIlhone’s daughter, granddaughter and surviving brothers and sisters finally got the chance to lay him to rest after his remains were found on a remote hillside in Co Wicklow. The 19-year-old was one of the so-called Disappeared who were abducted and killed by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.
I am sure that the family must have very mixed emotions about this – but perhaps they will at least gain some comfort that their son is finally given a Christian burial and is properly laid to rest.
The bit of this report that stuck in my throat was when I read that among more than 500 mourners following the cortege were a number of senior republicans, including former IRA terrorist leader Bobby Storey and Sinn Féin Assembly member and convicted IRA murderer Paul Maskey. Why were they at this funeral? Their organisation kidnapped and murdered the young lad - have they no shame that they now turn up “to pay their respects”? Ghouls.
I see that a fully-dressed clown was left stunned after being strip searched by airport security at Belfast.
Children’s entertainer David Vaughan, 60, was dressed as Pc Konk, complete with huge floppy shoes, a policeman’s helmet and face paint, when he was taken aside by security staff at Birmingham International Airport. Mr Vaughan had been booked by Variety Club Midlands to entertain 100 disadvantaged children on a plane as it circled the region on a one-hour Christmas charity flight. But a piece of metal on his costume set off the security alarm, prompting security guards to confiscate his plastic handcuffs and order him to strip down to his shorts and T-shirt. Staff also demanded he put his bubble mix liquid, to be used to blow bubbles from a plastic saxophone, into a clear sealed plastic bag.
I can only assume that they mistook PC Konk for Sir Hugh Orde – another clown.
Ever thought about what is and what is not, illegal: and why?
Take one species as a discussion point to examine, and then ask why it is either a) worthy of protection or b)whether you agree with them either being pursued to extinction or just NIMBY?
The item under discussion is a bird of prey, namely the hen harrier. This bird is one of nature’s more successful hunters, because that is what this particular species has evolved into, and who can argue with the processes of nature? Unfortunately, the hen harrier has flown directly into a conflict with modern capitalism, in the shape of managed moors which hold grouse and other farmed birds which are grown to be shot. The harrier is a very efficient killer, because that’s what it’s very nature is, and if the male sees a field full of either static or slow-moving birds which it naturally considers as food, it is going to do what comes naturally, and therein lies the problem. The gamekeepers who manage the shoot moors rightly or wrongly consider the hen harrier as a pest to be driven from their area, and while not killing them, certainly make life uncomfortable to the point where the birds get the message, and move their nests and possible chicks to happier places where the gamekeepers do not rule!
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is naturally adamant that the hen harrier is, as a protected species, beyond reproach when it kills the nesting chicks etc. on a grouse moor. One would scarcely expect otherwise. The RSPCA has encouraged the breeding and nesting programme for these birds in Lancashire, but professes not to understand why these birds are failing to extend the range of their flying areas, as they feel that the birds should be capable of extending their numbers naturally, and in such extension, naturally the harriers would wish to fly and nest in areas where food is readily available. Their (inescapable) conclusion that the harriers are being persecuted is without serious evidence or proof, it is just that they reckon that the only enemy extant are the grouse gamekeepers, and therefore ‘case closed’.
Myself, I’m not convinced. It is possible that gamekeepers take an active strategy to rid their lands of such an efficient killer, bit it is also possible that the hen harrier just does not transplant as easily as the ‘experts’ believe!
P.S. Just as an afterthought, particularly relevant not only to this post, but our very way of thinking certainly within Great Britain. Ever thought about why we have the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, as well as the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals; but only the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children?
I see that unsurprisingly shares in the three largest Irish banks – Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank – have risen in early trading following the Government’s decision to inject up to €7.5 billion to recapitalise them.
At 8.51am shares in Bank of Ireland rose by over 37per cent to 93 cent, AIB by 20 per cent to €1.98while Anglo Irish Bank stock added8 per cent to36 cent. The Government is effectively taking over Anglo Irish with an investment of €1.5 billion for a 75 per cent control of the bank and is investing €2 billion each in AIB and Bank of Ireland (BoI). Speaking on RTE radio this morning the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said he hoped the move would restore confidence in the Irish banking system. He said other countries had made mistakes with regard to their own recapitalisation plans and said he had decided to deal with the three largest banks first. In return for its investments in AIB and BoI, the Government will have a 25 per cent say in “key issues” at the banks, including the power to appoint two more directors to their boards in addition to the two board members appointed under the bank guarantee scheme.
So, in essence, the government will now directly control a substantial chunk of Irish banking in exchange for this massive injection of capital. But, here is my question, to what benefit? How will this make these banks better? After all, poor lending practises combined with an over-heated property market combined with the economic downturn have lead to this crisis and I am unsure how this is going to be changed by what the Government is proposing? It is also my experience that the appointment of government nominees to commercial institutions has rarely had any benefit, save to those who land such lucrative posts! What say you? Is this a good deal?
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You do not defeat terrorism by rewarding terrorists, regardless of how many bleeding heart liberals argue otherwise. Want to know where that flawed approach leads to? Read UNIONISM DECAYED 1997-2007 - It's my first book and it explains what happens when you seeek to appease terrorists and call it peace. It's available right now for ATW readers so make sure you get your copy by emailing the editor! This is the book that dissents from the herd mentality that doing wrong can lead to being right. It doesn't and this book spells out WHY.
