Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
The Editor of Secular Sunday ends his weekly report on happenings within the world of atheism with the advice – stay skeptical.
And that is exactly where I stand after reading an article by militant Catholic John Waters who, we are asked to believe, has become an atheist.
Methinks the clue lies in the date of the article.
When Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, was asked why disgraced businessman Denis O’Brien was invited to the Global Irish Economic Forum last October he replied:
The invitations that went out replicated those that were invited to the first forum, and that’s what happened.
This pathetic excuse was (rightly) greeted with howls of laughter in the Dail.
Howlin’s excuse can be placed in the same category as that of the liar Ahern’s ‘I won my money on the horses’ excuse.
Both of these individuals show arrogant contempt for proper democracy and the intelligence of Irish citizens.
Minister Howlin deserves to be treated with the same level of respect as the liar Ahern.
Copy to:
Minister Howlin
When I read that Environment Minister Phil Hogan was refusing to pay service charges on his Portugal holiday penthouse I thought – it’s obviously an April Fools story.
But apparently the story is true.
Would you pay a charge if you were unhappy with the service the Minister is reported to have asked.
Right on Minister and hundreds of thousands of citizens share your sentiments.
Elaine Byrne has an excellent piece in yesterday’s Sunday Independent analyzing why the close connection between Fine Gael and Denis O’Brien could have major negative consequences for Ireland.
Her article, taken with Jody Corcoran’s article, tells us that the Irish Tammany Hall system of government is alive and well.
Jody Corcoran has a good piece in today’s Sunday Independent outlining the history of donations from big business to Fine Gael.
Recently, somebody, commenting on the liar Ahern’s claim that he won his money on the horses, said that Ahern wouldn’t know one end of a horse from another.
On Frontline last week, a Fianna Fail head responded to the comment saying that Ahern did indeed know one end of a horse from another.
In other words the liar Ahern’s ‘I won it on the horses’ excuse is reasonable and probably true.
Now only the most backward, most stupid, most uneducated moron would even contemplate believing such drivel never mind actually admit it on live television.
But, incredibly, self-confessed friend of the criminal Haughey and the liar Ahern, Des Peelo, agreed with the Fianna Fail head.
Now in case anyone thinks I’m biased against Peelo I’d like to say that anytime I see him, never mind actually hear him speak, my skin begins to crawl and I develop an overwhelming need to take a shower.
On the same show Peelo actually confirmed that he is indeed a moron when he delivered his very own thesis on the source of corruption.
Corruption happens for one of two reasons, sometimes both.
Corruption happens through greed which is a human dimension.
It also arises in a political sense and only in a political sense when people develop a sense of entitlement.
My good friend Haughey fell into that category.
I do not believe that Bertie is corrupt because he’s not greedy nor does he have a sense of entitlement.
Independent TD, Stephen Donnelly, has an article in today’s Sunday Independent which proves just how undemocratic our country has become.
Michael Noonan’s promissory note announcement this week was a stark example of how toothless an institution the Dail has become.
This is bad for democracy, and bodes ill for our economic and social recovery.
At 4pm on Thursday, Michael Noonan walked into the Dail and announced a new deal on the imminent payment of €3.1bn to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo and Irish Nationwide).
He read out his page and a half, refused to answer any questions, and left.
I and other TDs urgently requested time to ask a few questions but were informed that the house must proceed with ‘topical issues’.
This is time dedicated to discussing the most critical national issues of a given day.
It was introduced by the new Government to make the Dail more relevant, more connected to reality.
The following 10-minute debate was given over to the problem of sheep worrying by ramblers.
You are not reading a Father Ted script. That’s what actually happened.
Does anyone see any hope whatsoever?
I received the following comments from Cormac Lucey in response to my recent article on the fallout from the Mahon Tribunal Report.
My response to Mr. Lucy follows below.
I’m sorry that you were disappointed by my piece. Nowhere do I suggest that Bertie is “innocent of everything that happened”.
There is no doubt that those in government at the time must accept political responsibility for what happened to the economy on their watch.
But they got precious little help from “the experts” as this piece, which I wrote a year, attempts to demonstrate.
I would argue that Bertie didn’t deserve the adulation he enjoyed at the height of his powers. But nor does he deserve the opprobrium he “enjoys” today.
The same bodies which assured Bertie’s government that everything was OK in 2007 are today reassuring Enda’s government that our debts are sustainable.
We should look behind the pantomime villains which politics throws up and examine carefully the vested interests which endure long after “the villains” have left the stage to be replaced by new pantomime figures.
Unfortunately, Mr. Lucy, the pantomime villains you speak of hold positions of power where they can do pretty much as they like.
In almost all cases they put themselves, their party, the continuation of power for as long as possible and, of course, the behind the scenes vested interests before the country or its people.
They can do pretty much as they like because our administrative system- legal, public/civil service, law enforcement, regulatory agencies etc. do not operate like those in functional democracies.
In almost all cases these so called authorities go to great lengths to protect those guilty of corrupt practices and in many cases are themselves complicit in corruption.
At any time in the last thirty or so years politicians could have prevented the banks from routinely robbing their customers, could have allowed so called regulatory agencies to actually regulate rather than protecting the thieves, could have thrown their corrupt fellow politicians in jail.
They chose not to do any of this. As we can see from the (non) response to the Mahon Tribunal Report, they are still choosing not to do this.
Furthermore, many in the media seem to be completely blind to the big picture which is right in front of them.
Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state. It is different from all other Western democracies in that it refuses to act against corrupt politicians or white- collar crime in general.
Anyone who doubts what I say need only ask themselves the following simple questions.
If a Mahon Tribunal type report were published in a functional democracy would there have been arrests by now?
The answer is, of course, a resounding yes.
Why, then, have there been no arrests in Ireland?
Because state authorities, including the body politic, put the preservation of their corrupt system before the good of the country or its people.
The evidence for this is overwhelming and obvious to anyone looking at the situation with a completely objective mind.
The article you wrote in 2011 deals with some reasons for the economic collapse in 2008. While the collapse of the economy is a catastrophic event it is only a (an inevitable) symptom of a corrupt political/administrative system.
Political/administrative/business corruption is the big picture. This is where the power lies and ordinary citizens are completely powerless to do anything about it – to date.
Bertie Ahern does deserve the opprobrium he’s getting. It’s an absolute minimum ‘punishment’ for what he has done to Ireland and its people.
I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if this low-grade politician did what he did in a functional democracy he would now be in jail.
As a victim citizen of a corrupt state I can say with absolute certainty that neither Ahern nor any of those named in the report will be brought to justice.
That fact alone confirms that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state.
Copy to;
Cormac Lucey
Now that it has been established that Bertie Ahern lied under oath at the Mahon Tribunal all those who loyally served under him have to make a choice.
They have to admit they were complete fools to believe such drivel, make up some excuse for their gullibility or, for the first time in Irish political histroy, admit they knew he was lying but kept quiet to protect their own particular interests.
The third option, telling the truth, has never happened in Irish political life but here are examples of option one and two.
Micheál Martin has opted for the ‘Im a fool’ excuse. Asked by the Irish Daily Mail if he was a knave or a fool to believe Ahern’s evidence Martin replied;
I believed what Bertie Ahern said at the time of the tribunal and I was wrong and I was disappointed.
Now only a fool would believe that this fool is telling the truth when he says he believed the fool Ahern but at least he’s not blaming anybody else for his stupidity.
Former Green Party minister and loyal Bertie Ahern supporter Eamon Ryan took the second option – an excuse.
Questioned on Tonight with Vincent Browne (March 22) he placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Irish people.
Vincent Browne: You were implicated in the whole thing.
Ryan: No, we raised the whole issue of corruption… blah blah blah blah…
VB: But you were in government with Ahern.
Ryan: We went into government with Bertie Ahern and no matter what we did he was still going to be Taoiseach. The Irish people returned Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach in 2007, not us.
VB: You defended Ahern when everybody knew he was a liar
Ryan: The Irish people made a democratic decision that they were going to return Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail. That was not our call, it was the Irish people that did it.
VB: It was your call to go into govenment with someone you knew was telling lies to the tribunal.
Ryan: It was the Irish people who returned Bertie Ahern.
VB: You went into governent wth someone who you knew was lying.
Ryan: It was up to the tribunal to discern that (that Ahern was lying).
VB: Rubbish; you remained happily in government. Did you think it credible? (Ahern’s evidence)
Ryan: No, I didn’t. (Rejecting the ‘I’m a fool option’).
VB: You’ve never said that before in public. So you remained in government disbelieving the evidence the leader of government gave to the tribunal on the issue of corruption.
Ryan: One of the reasons you stay in government is to get things done…blah blah blah blah…
It is obvious from this exchange that, at the very least, the integrity and honesty of Eamon Ryan and the Green Party was seriously compromised by their association with the corrupt Fianna Fail party.
Copy to:
Eamon Ryan
Micheál Martin
Irish Times journalist John Waters was on The Saturday Night Show recently (March 17) dispensing his usual bizarre ‘wisdom’.
Here’s some of what he had to say.
On the Internet:
The Internet is a cesspit, a sewer populated by extremely nasty people. It’s a place where people, hiding behind masks of anonymity, write foul articles.
Those who are not anonymous are also nasty people because it’s a kill or be killed environment. Everybody becomes extremely nasty once they log on.
Presumably this includes all Waters’ fellow journalists and the millions of his fellow Catholics from all over the world who regularly write on the Internet including many in the Vatican.
And what, I wonder, would David Quinn, his fellow militant Catholic, think of being called a nasty, foul blogger?
The Internet will be a desert in about ten to fifteen years because people will become bored by it.
This is like someone predicting, a hundred years after the invention of the printing press, when books were widely read, that eventually people would become bored with reading.
On his weekly column in the Irish Times:
I write a column every week in the Irish Times and there are posts at the end of it. I never read them, people tell me I shouldn’t read them, they’re just foul.
We can see here the distain that Waters has for his readers and, indeed, for the Irish Times editors who pass the comments for publication.
Other people read the comments and report back to him perhaps to protect his sensitivities.
From time to time I read the posts in response to his articles. Some are for; some are against, none are foul.
Obviously, Waters doesn’t believe in the positive benefits that can accrue from reader feedback. This, I suspect, is because he believes he’s the fountain of all wisdom or perhaps the idea of comments at the end of his articles is a tad too close to how the hated bloggers operate.
On letter writers to the Irish Times:
The funny thing is when you read the letters to the Times they’re kind of vaguely intelligent and the names and addresses are on them so you can go and find the guy if he says something really nasty.
Vaguely intelligent? I suppose that’s a sort of compliment coming from the Great One.
On Fianna Fail (Waters delivered a morale boosting speech to the faithful at the recent Ard Fheis):
I have a deep affection for Fianna Fail. When I became a journalist I noticed all this stuff about Fianna Fail in articles and analysis and thought; this is all mad stuff, even I could see it was mad so I started to hang around with them a bit and found that I quite like them.
Do you not blame them for everything that has gone on, he was asked.
No, I don’t. I gave them a metaphor at the Ard Fheis when I was speaking.
The plane crashed and you were driving the plane, the plane was off course but the plane was also struck by lightning.
You have to apologise for being in the wrong place and for being a little bit over the limit but you cant really keep apologising for the lightning because the lightning is the point and we were struck by lightning.
Presumably the lightning here is Lehman Brothers.
Brendan O’Connor drew great laughter from the audience when he said:
If I was on a plane and it was going to be struck by lightning I wouldn’t fancy Brian Cowen being the pilot, would you?
Waters, however, was not laughing. He was not pleased by this insult to his vast wisdom.
It was clear that, in his mind, he was consigning O’Connor, RTE and the entire audience to that foul cesspit where all the nasty bloggers work their evil deeds.