Category: Uncategorized

Gay Mitchell joke.

The socialist was asked what would he do if he had two yachts.

I’d keep one and give one to the state.

What would you do if you had two farms?

I’d keep one and give one to the state.

What would you do if you had two rolls royce?

I’d keep one and give one to the state.

And what would you do if you had two bikes?

Ah c’mon now, you know I have two bikes.

Osama should never have filled in that census form.

I know I’m writing with the benefit of hindsight but I have always been skeptical of media reports from Libya telling us that Gaddafi was finished.

What puzzled me was the actual pictures from Libya which showed disorganized, untrained rebels armed with little more than AK 47s and some heavy machine guns while Gaddafi’s forces had well trained battalions, regiments of tanks and an effective air force.

Media reports always attempted to bridge this gap by telling us that what the rebels lacked in military hardware was more than compensated for by their high level of enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, enthusiasm does not stop bullets or bombs or make up for lack of professional strategy.

Undoubtedly Gaddafi is a ruthless dictator but his military and political strategies are succeeding.

Initially, he retreated to Tripoli and immediately began to consolidate his forces while at the same time launching a twin pronged propaganda campaign.

A local campaign to convince his supporters that they were under attack from outside forces principally al-Qaeda and a global campaign to convince the international community that he was still in charge and would win.

The rebels, on the other hand, made two fatal mistakes.

First, they failed to establish a central political authority backed up by a well organized military force.

Second, and most disastrously, they steadfastly refused to ask for outside assistance. This is akin to a non swimmer telling a would be rescuer not to throw a lifeline insisting that somehow he would safely reach the shore.

The rebels were naïve in the extreme to think that they could defeat a vastly superior military force by idealism alone.

They should have asked the Devil and all for every and any assistance. The total defeat of the enemy by whatever means available should have been their first and overriding aim.

Time enough to sort out lesser details once the country had been secured.

Machiavelli got it right when he warned:

Before all else, be armed.

I’ve just heard the news that the UN Security Council has backed a no-fly zone over Libya and all necesary measures short of invasion to protect civilians.

The ‘all necessary measures’ obviously means the targetting of Gaddafi’s forces in the air and on the ground to prevent them taking Benghazi.

The international community have only hours to act.

What’s happening in Japan is really horrendous and seems to be getting worse by the hour.

Those people in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station are real hero’s, All safety systems have failed completely and when we hear that they’re down to calling in water cannon, normally used for crowd control, then it’s likely that the staff are, in effect, dead men walking.

Here’s how nuclear expert John Large explained the situation on RTE News.

The fuel has been taken out of reactor number four and put in a water filled pond for stowage. But the water has evaporated away from the pond because it has no pumps and the fuel has started melting down as well as going critical.

In other words it has started acting like a nuclear reactor again but in this case in an open pool.

The criticality resulted in an enormous burst of energy that has blown its way through the containment of the pool and at the moment they’re trying to maintain more water in that fuel pool to stop further criticality and the fuel fragments being thrown around the site.

So they’ve lost control of about 100 tons of fuel in a fuel pond.

I notice that most of the nuclear power stations are located on the West coast which makes sense as the geographic fault line lies deep in the sea off the East coast. The puzzle is why they built any nuclear power stations on the North East coast at all; perhaps they just didn’t think that an earthquake of such a magnitude would occur.

The inhabitants of Tokyo, only 220 kilometers away, are getting very nervous. Could it be that this major world city of 35 million people is on the brink of abandonment?

The Saudi Arabian authorities have ‘detained’ a vulture on suspicion that he’s an Israeli spy.

In December, the governor of Egypt’s South Sinai province, Mohamed Abdul Fadil Shousha, suggested that the Israeli’s also had a hand in a string of deadly shark attacks off the coast of the Sharm el-Sheikh resort.

Is it sun stroke or what?

Season’s greetings to all. May 2011 see all your wishes come true.

Political ignorance is one of the principal factors that enables our corrupt political system to survive.

Here’s a good example of such ignorance although the writer deserves credit for his honesty.

I’m sickened by Fianna Fail’s lies

I have been a Fianna Fail supporter for many years and all I can say today is that I’m sick to the stomach of all the lies they have told over the past few weeks.

All the deceit and cover-ups that they have engaged in makes me feel miserable. How could I have been so silly to believe their lies?
Have I been living in cloud cuckoo land or did I bury my head in the sand and just keep hoping for a turnaround?

How Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan could face the cameras this weekend surprises and galls me. How they continue to have the neck to talk to the country is beyond me.

They and Fianna Fail have sold us down the river alright; it’s the lies and deceit that get to me. What happened to the beauty of truth? They are lying so long now they would not know the difference.

Terry Healy
Kill, Co Kildare

I’m off to Australia today to have a look around, including a wander out to that big rock thing in the middle.

I’ll be back in about three weeks.

It didn’t really surprise me that the promised press release from Comhaltas never materialised so I rang the organisation again yesterday and was told by the same spokesperson:

At the moment we have an official statement in relation to the allegations made in the Daily Mail and that statement is at present being circulated to our membership and our relevant authority structures.

I wasn’t aware that there was a Daily Mail story on the matter so that’s something I’ll have to check out.

I pressed the spokesperson on whether a press release would be released at all and was told that at the moment there’s no plan to do so and no more questions would be answered.

It gets more curious by the day.

Comhaltas seems to be a dead end so I think some questions to the Committee on Members Interests in Seanad Eireann will be my next move.

Although Gavin Hewitt is an experienced news reporter it’s clear his knowledge of Ireland is somewhat lacking.

Reporting on the protest strikes in Spain he was asked why there were no such protests in Ireland.

I think in Ireland they realised that the Celtic Tiger was no more. I think they embraced the idea that they had to make quick cuts there in the hope they would be on the road to recovery before other countries.

What’s really affecting these countries (Spain, Greece and Italy) is the understanding that there may be several years ahead of big cuts.

I think there’s an understanding in some of these countries that they are in the midst of what could be a cultural revolution; that their way of life as they understand it is going to be changed.

So, Ireland’s crisis is over. All necessary cuts are made and, unlike other countries, we will not have to endure many years of hardship?

Is this reporter a Fianna Fail ‘corner’ man?

It’s likely the countries in question will indeed go through a cultural revolution and be the better for it. Sadly, there’s no sign of any revolution in Ireland – yet.