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General discussion / Conservative Watch

« on: February 25, 2016, 08:05:25 AM »

Welcome to this edition of Conservative Watch.

Republicans in Springfield Illinois are targeting single mothers with a bill that would deny them birth certificates of their own children. The measure would require that a father be available to sign the documents, and "…provides that if the unmarried mother cannot or refuses to name the child’s father, either a father must be conclusively established by DNA evidence or, within 30 days after birth, another family member who will financially provide for the child must be named, in court, on the birth certificate."

It "Provides that absent DNA evidence or a family member’s name, a birth certificate will not be issued and the mother will be ineligible for financial aid from the State for support of the child."

Failure to provide a birth certificate would strip a person of all manner of rights such as the ability to apply for a driver's license, a passport, a social security number, and would deprive a person of the ability to prove citizenship.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's latest supporters have an interesting uniform:

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General discussion / Is Ricky Gervais funny?

« on: January 11, 2016, 07:42:00 AM »

Discuss.

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GAA Discussion / Army team in London GAA

« on: January 10, 2016, 06:58:52 PM »

Club set to object to British army GAA team

Granuaile Hurling Club, based in Harrow, North London, sent notification to the London County Board of their proposal to ‘rescind’ last September’s historic decision to allow a team from the Irish Guards compete in the junior championship.

The move could be viewed as significant, as the new London chairman is Granuaile stalwart John Lacey. The decision to allow in the club was divisive and only passed when then chairman, Noel O’Sullivan, cast the deciding ballot after a tied vote.

An email to the city’s clubs from the secretary of the London County Board Mark Gottsch, and forwarded to the Irish Examiner, read: “A Chara, In accordance with Rule 4.3 Voting T.O. 2015 (p58) I have been requested by Granuaile hurling club to notify all members of the London County Committee of their intention to propose the rescindment of the decision to approve the affiliation of the Irish Guards as a club to the London County Committee.
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“Could all clubs please ensure that their club delegates are briefed and mandated on this proposal.”

When asked by the Irish Examiner to explain their position, Granuaile chairman Donal Corbett said: “We’re affiliated to the London County Committee and perform our business within that structure. We will disclose everything to the London County Commitee.”

Mr Corbett has been heavily involved at County Board level in recent years.

The Irish Guards are the first British army regiment to become an affiliated club in the GAA’s history. British security forces were banned from playing Gaelic games until 2001 under Rule 21.

The Irish Guards applied to join the GAA as a club several months ago after moving to London from Aldershot. At the time of the vote, Noel O’Sullivan said:

“Very simply for me I can see both sides. I can appreciate the way people feel. But we have to move forward, don’t dwell on the past.”

The regiment, nicknamed the Micks, are set to play under the name Gardaí Éireannach.

One London source expressed concern about how the move will be viewed.

“The very fact it’s been proposed portrays us in a very bad light,” he said.

The Irish Examiner

was unable to make contact with the Irish Guards at time of writing.

How embarrassing. On the plus side, they're on a hiding to nowhere with this. There's no rule against letting them play. This was settled with the abolition of Rule 21. If for some reason the London board voted to kick them out of the competition, they could appeal it to Central Council who I think would rule the objection out of order and let them back in.

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General discussion / China crisis - is this another 2008?

« on: January 08, 2016, 08:12:18 AM »

Anyone keeping an eye on this? What do you think? Could the rest of the world be about to take a hit from China's troubles?

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General discussion / Is Ireland a nation of negative whingers?

« on: December 26, 2015, 07:41:01 PM »

 I was going to post this on the Grinds-my-Gears thread, but it deserves a topic of its own.

It seems that just about every story posted on FB by an Irish news outlet, no matter how positive, usually draws overwhelmingly negative comments.

If it's the government tackling problem x, the chorus goes up: "what about problem y?" 
If the government tackles problem y: "What about problem x?"
If it's a worthwhile initiative to fix some long standing problem that's worth dealing with: "sure it's a joke" or "it's not going to work."
If it's officials on an international trip to drum up trade and investment, "sure it's only a junket."
If it's President Higgins saying something thoughtful, it's a tirade of personalized abuse mocking his height, personal appearance, or even his wife, usually coming from clueless morons who don't know how the constitution works, because he had to sign the water legislation into law.
If it's about Bono, it's the usual "pay your taxes you gobshite."
If it's about Bob Geldof it's the usual "shut up, who do you think you are being successful?"
If it's about any other internationally successful Irish artist: "Sure they're rubbish."
If it's about some bit of infrastructure being built: "sure what about the potholes on my street?"
If it's about helping migrants to assimilate, it's the timeless "what about the homeless" trope.

I'll bet the same whinging shower of apes making these moaning comments are the same people who go into a polling booth and make a point of voting for some tax-dodging, bribe-taking, convicted criminal who "fixshed de road" and forced the government to built a city-sized hospital in his small village just to "stick it to them."

When is the country going to grow up? When are people going to cut out the whinging and take a bit of responsibility for who they vote for? If you want the country to be run properly, vote for the right people. Demand an end to corruption. Demand transparency. If there's nobody decent to vote for, stand for election yourself. Take positive action. Do something about it. Don't just sit there whinging and refusing to believe every piece of good news.

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General discussion / The Tony spam thread

« on: December 04, 2015, 08:13:23 AM »

Admins, please merge all spam threads by Tony (the ones about the same topic) into this one. It'd save a fierce amount of scrolling.

Thanks!

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General discussion / When is a smiley not a smiley?

« on: November 25, 2015, 05:31:14 AM »

Starting a thread for Muppet and Franko to fight out their handbag battle in privacy while the rest of us get on with discussing Irish unity on the other thread.

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General discussion / United Ireland soccer associations / national team

« on: October 11, 2015, 12:49:30 AM »

Thought experiment: What would be involved in reuniting soccer in Ireland under a single governing body with a single national team? 

More soccer uptake in the north among nationalists? More nationalist-minded clubs forming in the north and getting voting rights in the IFA?   Better community relations so that nationalists would feel safe attending games in unionist areas and vice versa? Better community relations so that working class unionists would get behind an all-Ireland team the same way unionists support the all-Ireland rugby team?  Would the FAI clubs have anything to gain from going back under the rubric of the IFA? Would the two domestic leagues be improved if they were merged into a bigger league?

What are the obstacles?  What would need to happen to overcome them?

Please try to keep the usual "it will never happen" posts to a minimum, we've heard them all before and they add nothing new to the discussion. This is a thought experiment about how we could actually achieve this. I'd be interested in hearing from people with more knowledge of the internal politics of either of the two soccer associations.

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General discussion / Best way to send money from the US to the UK

« on: August 21, 2015, 06:11:11 AM »

Any suggestions? I've used Western Union before but I'm open to other ideas.

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General discussion / Drive-thru pranks

« on: August 06, 2015, 04:49:42 AM »

Fast Food Freestyle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvK-GLupgIw

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General discussion / Blarney Castle controversy

« on: July 30, 2015, 05:37:38 AM »

"Objections have been raised to proposals to erect a statue of 16th century Blarney Castle owner Chieftain Cormac Teige McCarthy on a site overlooking the world-famous Cork village as part of Blarney Chamber’s work to mark the anniversary."

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/village-row-over-plans-for-blarneysnbsp250th-birthday-345094.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook

The story doesn't say what the basis of the objections is. What are the locals concerned about?

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General discussion / Ex-pats in non-Anglophone countries

« on: July 27, 2015, 07:04:28 AM »

I'm curious about what it's like being an ex-pat in a non English-speaking country where you had to start at zero and learn the local lingo. I found it easy to settle in here in the states since I was already so familiar with a lot of it through TV and what have you, and understanding the language was a huge help. But what's it like having to settle in a place where you have to put serious thought into something as basic as ordering food or paying for stuff? Do you feel a bit helpless at first? Do you find yourself relying much on other people knowing English?

I remember when I visited Russia I felt like I had a superpower just by being able to read signs and say "that picture please" in a shop. Do you get a kick out of getting by in a tongue that's not your own?

The English-speaking world is a decent sized place, but I often feel limited in my travel options because I'm a bit put off by language barriers.

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General discussion / Miriam O'Callaghan: would you ...

« on: July 04, 2015, 09:59:33 AM »

vote for her for President?

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General discussion / The "on this day in history" thread

« on: June 19, 2015, 04:01:23 AM »

June 18th, 1994. 21 years ago, Giants' Stadium, New Jersey. Ray Houghton's goal - Ireland 1, Italy 0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_Av65L4R0

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General discussion / The US policing crisis thread

« on: April 28, 2015, 07:10:37 AM »

Just read an article in the Atlantic about so-called "rough rides." Apparently there's a plethora of nicknames for the practice of cuffing someone, throwing him in the back of a van, not strapping him in, and then driving around like a maniac to rough the victim up. "Bringing him to the front" is the act of sudden braking to slam him against the front panel, also known as a "screen test." In Philly they call them "nickel rides" after amusement park rides. If they've got that many names for it then it's a good bet that it's a fairly common practice.

For all this talk of condemning the rioting in Baltimore, which you have to do, I feel a bit uncomfortable with this American culture of hero worship for anyone in a uniform. If someone serves in the military you have to refer to them as a "hero" and thank him for his service, even if you know nothing about him or what he did when he was on tour. You don't know if he spent his time as a mechanic in the base or shooting up civilians on the street. And I certainly don't get this habit some people have of saying "I support the police." As far as I'm concerned I'll be grateful for when they do a good job the same way I'm grateful to the waitress who gives good service that I'm paying for.

I'd make an exception maybe for the likes of firemen since they're not generally armed and not in much of a position to abuse any power. But this doctrine of porcine infallibility makes me very uncomfortable and it will be America's undoing if they don't do a better job of policing the policemen.