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[Explain how we are not locked up]

Well said Armagh
Explain how we are not locked up
As Armagh can't do anything other than walk outside
We are caged up

Hysterical nonsense like this does you no favours

You might be happy living in a fecking police state where you can barely walk up the road without getting questioned but I'm not.

I've drove to work regularly and been out and about plenty since last March and haven't been stopped by or saw the police stopping once (while either walking or in the car).

I presume you're in the north? In the south, the Gardai are everywhere.

Worth remembering those injured in the Aldwych bus bombing, particularly Dubliner Brendan Woolhead, who died later the same year while undergoing heroin detox with a doctor who was later struck off and branded "a danger to the public".

A grim story all round. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/doctor-linked-to-drug-detox-death-danger-to-the-public-26071349.html

If a politician or party organisation is stupid enough to put an official GAA county crest on their publicity material, they have more to be worrying about than newspapers' propaganda.

Morons.

They had the opportunity in the lead up to Christmas and you seen what happened.

That seems to be an argument for never ever opening anything again.

our politicians are so so lazy, the data is suggesting some restrictions should be lifting, especially with the bit of the turn in the weather especially for outdoors. but no, we dont trust people to not party over Patricks day and Easter so we will take the easiest option available to us and just keep all current restrictions in place, so so depressing

Agree 100%. If St Patricks day and Easter are likely to be a problem, shut everything for those few days but otherwise start lifting restrictions as soon as you can.

[I have "Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible" but haven't got around to reading it yet]

"The Future Is History" by Masha Gessen and "The Road To Unfreedom" by Timothy Snyder are well worth reading, read both in the last 18 months

Peter Pomerantsev's stuff is supposed to be very good as well, I have "Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible" but haven't got around to reading it yet

There's a fierce air of repressed homosexuality about Putinism and contemporary Russian nationalism

It's very, very good.

It was a great bank in the 80s and 90s but went downhill fast in the 2000s after RBS took over.

There is no explaining or justifying the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki like dublin7 attempted to do.

Of course there is an explanation, and probably a number of them, for both. They didn't just happen spontaneously.  Same with for example the Holocaust. Explanation is not justification.

If you're explaining the logic of dropping a bomb that kills over 200k civivilans then you are justifying it. There is no logic to explain it or justify it. It was one of the greatest atrocities the world has even seen and was done with the knowledge it was going to kill hundreds of thousands of innocents.

Don't be silly. History teachers often have to explain to students why for example Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 or Hitler did likewise in 1941. Doing so does not on any level constitute justification.

Good to see boundaries have been set. I think everyone would agree using nuclear weapons is crossing a line

Watched a programme on this recently actually, the point of the show wasn't actually so as the bombs were to finish off the Japanese but to stop the Russian advance that was coming to East Asia and stop another de facto set of satellites. I genuinely never had thought of that until then.

I wouldn't have thought that either. For me I was always thought it was done to save American lives. The invasions of the japanese islands one at time was costing them huge numbers of lives and dropping the atomic bombs was a way of ending the war quickly without risking more Americans

I've read it all now, a lad justifying the dropping of atomic bombs on cities. Nearly quarter of a million people killed - almost all civilians.

He's not justifying it. Just explaining the Americans' logic.

Putin is indeed a tyrant but compared to Russian tyrants throughout history, he's one of the more benign ones. I hope and pray that his successor will be likewise. I don't expect much improvement. It's a terribly dysfunctional country.

So the former Taoiseach and leader of FG is now under a criminal investigation.

Surely he should be stepping aside until this is concluded.

The Free State media are an absolute disgrace on this.

Agreed. He'd be a goner if it was anyone else.

If you are under 60 and get into a car with your parents you can drive home safely, but at the same time pass on covid to them which could potentially prove fatal to them. That is why people under 60 should get the vaccine. Not for fear for themselves but for what they could pass on to the more vulnerable.

He's talking about getting into a car and getting killed on the road, not dying from Covid.

11 months into this, there is no reason for any of us to be passing on Covid to our parents or other vulnerable relatives.

[it will save the lives of the older people in the population]

You presume politicians and the medical community don't know the consequences of lockdown...

I've yet to meet anybody happy with the situation but we believe that by doing this now it will save the lives of the older people in the population. Lads like you pretending that we want to ruin everyones lives and half quoting people do not help the situation.

You accused me earlier of not having been affected by Covid. I lost a beloved relative to it last year. She had been infected while in hospital for another ailment, because the hospital had insufficient PPE. This was at a time when you could buy any number of masks in Lidl.

I don't trust the people who caused her to die in agony. They're more interested in covering their backsides than in saving lives. And when this is all over and the cancer wards are full with people who should have been treated last year but weren't, these people will be still running the show and still evading the consequences of their actions.

MacKenna has completely lost the run of himself. It also interesting to see Parkinson go full Gemma O'Doherty as well. Once Joe.ie goes bang he'll be completely unemployable.

Ireland, where if you honestly express opinions on current and social affairs, you risk career and financial ruin. And where if you always tell them what they want to hear, you'll be a made man.

What a kip.