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de Ligt is evidently the Dutch Maguire, that's a mistake that'll take 3-4 years to get off the books

Timmy chocolate wrists another disaster, Rory Beggan improves Utd overnight

De Ligt by himself encapsulates United's transfer policy post Fergie.

A player of early promise who is found out at the highest level - and injury prone to boot. Smarter clubs have worked this out, and his career should naturally dwindle out. But United not only sign him but put him on a big money, lengthy contract. Thereby continuing their legacy as a club of overpaid underachievers.

I think you are reading this one inside out. Liverpool are competing in 4 comps and are entering the festive fixture pileup. The last thing they needed was to push a game into that mix.

Started watching an Australian show called Mr Inbetween after noticing a random online recommendation, it's very good. Low level crime drama with some typical aussie humour, 30min episodes.

It's very good, very well written. The lower level production values / budget keep it rooted in reality and add to the charm.

Belfast has since Covid become the most expensive place in Ireland to go drinking. Yet try getting a hotel room in it on a Saturday evening.

The publicans/conglomerates have won this round. No point in arguing otherwise.

pubs/restaurants pricing out punters
was out for lunch in dublin last friday
bottle of basic albarino €52
same bottle in off licence €15

This isn't that unreasonable imho.

Bars for years worked on a 3:1 ratio. The owner here has gone closer to 4:1, which is within the realms of expectations for a restaurant.

Bars in Belfast currently running closer to a 8:1 ratio for putting bog standard spirits like Smirnoff and Gordon's into a glass. That's the bit that I can neither compute, afford or support.

Belfast has since Covid become the most expensive place in Ireland to go drinking. Yet try getting a hotel room in it on a Saturday evening.

The publicans/conglomerates have won this round. No point in arguing otherwise.

I dunno Puckoon.

I wouldn't shed a tear when a drug dealer is slain. He has chosen a life where his money is made out of making other people's lives worse. And even though one man's death will not fix the system, at least it might deter some others.

I kind of feel the same about this killing.

Existential question for you then to pass the time.

I work in the pharmaceutical development industry, my company was actively involved in the development of the Covid vaccines (for all the companies that developed them, Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J).

Does that make my execution acceptable? Does anyone who works for United Healthcare  have a legitimate target on their back?

Did he choose this life or tumble into it? Is your moral compass so erect that you would refuse a promotion to CEO level?

Honest answer? I don't know. The world is complicated. My moral compass is neither fixed to a point nor in a straight line. I long ago gave up on concept of black and white. Everything is grey.

But (and I hate using this term so frequently as I might come across as a political zealot, and that would make me very uncomfortable), neoliberalism (or at least my understanding of it) is destroying the western world. And the absolute heart of it (in my understanding) is unchecked pursuit of financial/material surplus above all else.

The moral compass I have does have some fundamentals to it. One is that humans have a basic hierarchy of needs. Maslow of course defined this better than I ever could 80 years ago. And for a society to function in an orderly and productive manner, the bottom tiers of his pyramid must be seen as a basic human right, and not a commodity to be speculated upon by others.

Your industry is one of the greatest and most essential ever devised and honed by mankind.

I just wish it was run by scientists and engineers, instead of accountants and private equity funds.

So my grey answer is keep doing great things in the advancement of medical science. We need you. But were a virus to arrive that somehow was focused on killing c-suite people in your industry, I'd probably get it's name tattooed on my leg.

You seem to be excusing the murder of a husband and father because you think he is immoral. If Conor McGregor was gunned down in the street tomorrow would you find it as easy to excuse his killers just because you believe him to be an immoral man.

This man's death served no purpose, united healthcare will still exist next year. Private insurance in America will continue, as will capitalism and neoliberalism. All that was achieved was to add to the suffering in the world.

I don't think he was immoral. He was much worse than that. His company's modus operandi is to protract healthcare insurance claims for long enough that the claimant either dies or goes bankrupt. This plan might have been devised by a CFO and implemented by a COO, but to imbibe it in a corporate culture is entirely on him. So his legacy is that of a person who was could square off people dying against him getting a larger bonus. That his actions are legal, whilst drug dealer's actions are illegal, says more about America than a decade of case studies. People like this are no loss to the world, whether they've children or not.

——

An early demise for Conor McGregor would not cause celebrations. Not should it. But he'll have earned it when it happens.

——

As for no purpose. Revolutions always have touch points, when words start to translate into actions. I'm not telling you that's what's happened here. But America is overdue a revolution, and given the history and climate of that country, when it happens it'll involve a lot of shooting. We may get used to it.

I dunno Puckoon.

I wouldn't shed a tear when a drug dealer is slain. He has chosen a life where his money is made out of making other people's lives worse. And even though one man's death will not fix the system, at least it might deter some others.

I kind of feel the same about this killing.

Existential question for you then to pass the time.

I work in the pharmaceutical development industry, my company was actively involved in the development of the Covid vaccines (for all the companies that developed them, Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J).

Does that make my execution acceptable? Does anyone who works for United Healthcare  have a legitimate target on their back?

Did he choose this life or tumble into it? Is your moral compass so erect that you would refuse a promotion to CEO level?

Honest answer? I don't know. The world is complicated. My moral compass is neither fixed to a point nor in a straight line. I long ago gave up on concept of black and white. Everything is grey.

But (and I hate using this term so frequently as I might come across as a political zealot, and that would make me very uncomfortable), neoliberalism (or at least my understanding of it) is destroying the western world. And the absolute heart of it (in my understanding) is unchecked pursuit of financial/material surplus above all else.

The moral compass I have does have some fundamentals to it. One is that humans have a basic hierarchy of needs. Maslow of course defined this better than I ever could 80 years ago. And for a society to function in an orderly and productive manner, the bottom tiers of his pyramid must be seen as a basic human right, and not a commodity to be speculated upon by others.

Your industry is one of the greatest and most essential ever devised and honed by mankind.

I just wish it was run by scientists and engineers, instead of accountants and private equity funds.

So my grey answer is keep doing great things in the advancement of medical science. We need you. But were a virus to arrive that somehow was focused on killing c-suite people in your industry, I'd probably get it's name tattooed on my leg.

I dunno Puckoon.

I wouldn't shed a tear when a drug dealer is slain. He has chosen a life where his money is made out of making other people's lives worse. And even though one man's death will not fix the system, at least it might deter some others.

I kind of feel the same about this killing.

Substandard - the aging thing definitely matters.

There's a reason why everyone could so quickly identify with "old man yells at cloud" when the Simpsons made it famous; we are all familiar with older men going on endless, aimless rants about almost everything.

And I would think the crux of it is that when you have an older family and you ponder where life is taking them, you can't help sometimes wondering why we bother. It's not so much that the "game is rigged", as the game is too complicated to understand, and it's easier to point the finger at both those who've tried to mould the world, and to those who've managed to stockpile unfathomable material wealth.

To me it feels like destabilization of populations in the west is all part of the plan. I don't see one western country trying to calm 'the chaos' down or look as if they are doing the bidding of their electorate. Uniparties in every country now. A hidden hand has got our politicians and main stream journalism by the balls. Its modern day communism we're lurching toward.   

Honestly this is batshit crazy.

There is no "plan". There is no "hidden hand". It's just a common understanding among experienced politicians an understanding / acceptance that if your country has an election every 5 years, then you spend 4 years milking it dry for you and your friends, then 1 year saying whatever the f**k it takes, an attempt to go again.

It's just neoliberalism fulfilling itself. Nobody owns it. Nobody directs it.

Chaos emerging at a macro and micro level.

Take a wee look at some of the threads on here. Covid 19, Many Face of US Politics, conspiracy Theories.

A small but significant number of people, regardless of political affiliation, are having their minds poisoned. AND we are just here to talk GAA. Look a bit broader and you see it with people you know in real life. And they're just the ones far enough gone to talk about it.  It's a form of brainwashing, and it feels like a cult, but it's feckin everywhere.

It's all the direct result of the destruction of the written word, the worst of the many evil byproducts of the internet/information age.

The dissemination of information was never a perfect process, but not so long ago, it took time, knowledge and diligence to become published in any sphere. The overseers of the written word were (largely) aware that they had a duty in accuracy. Hence when they held someone accountable, it was trusted, and it would destroy a career. So people innately had to be more careful in their actions.

Whereas nowadays the majority of published content (including this post) is absolute nonsense. Sources cannot be trusted. Expertise is challenged by all and any. The churn is too fast for anyone to process. And a result the written word no longer matters, and nobody can ever be held accountable.

[They are going no-where and will NEVER be in government.]

It's understandable our Northern brethren on here have a soft spot for Sinn Fein.

The reality down south is Sinn Fein offered no opposition in the last Dail.

They were like lap-dogs to the Government. They pandered to the immigration problem.

They had No real oppinion on Covid, housing and all the woke stuff.

Outside of Mary Lou, Pearce and Matt Carthy - they had no public characters.

They are just another Globalist Party.

They are going no-where and will NEVER be in government.

Jesus that a big statement. Wouldn't want to be putting any money on that

Jeez some statement in respect of the party who has the second largest number of seats
As the troubles  continue to pass into history the fg/ff comments will start to lack credence 68-94 will become like the war of independence and the civil war .

If SF can continue to maintain a profile that's higher than SD or Labour, then they'll likely have the most seats by 2032. That's just demographics in action.

Whether that'll be enough to form a government or not, who knows. But by that stage one of FF or FG will be looking for coat tails to ride on, I would expect.

[all that is relative to the cost of living and the housing market]

I wasn't referring to disenfranchised in terms of their vote, more that they are disenfranchised from access to housing, access to a fair economy and access to employment and opportunities.

Housing is certainly an issue, but people today have a much better economy, more access to education and employment and so more opportunities than their parents or grandparents ever had.

Agreed, but all that is relative to the cost of living and the housing market. Even back in the day with less education and employment opportunities owning your own house in your own community wasn't the pipe dream it is today.

Could go round in circles with this all day but that is just the way it is and more and more young people are coming into that reality every year.

It's properly mindboggling that people are unable / unwilling to understand this.

From my outsider's perspective it looks like:

Roughly 40% of the Irish population don't believe that the policies and make-up of the government matter.

Roughly 30% would like Ireland to become a more socialist place to live.

Roughly 30% are happy with things the way they are.

The only one of those groups that's decreasing in size is the last one.

Where do SF and the left go from here? First they do it patiently, secondly they do it by concentrating on social inequality and staying away from anything overtly republican and anything overtly woke/liberal/environmentally focused. That's when the absent 40 might wake up.

Rodri is some loss. Still a fair chance City go and win 20 games in a row though.

Some result for United, didnt get seeing it, were they good or Everton poor? Another few wins like that and no reason they cant push for top 4

No chance of City going 20 games in a row.

Invincibility in sport is somewhat of a self fulfilling prophesy. For decade now teams in the bottom half have been throwing games against City to focus their fitness and sharpness on more winnable games. That aura is gone now. It might well come back, just won't happen this season.