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Monaghan will not be beaten.

Putin has repeatedly denied  that Russia will invade despite the obvious evidence of warmongering and army deployments. I'm bending towards  the worth of that promise. I very much doubt that he would go back on such a public promise. And it's unlikely  considering Russia's expressed concern over the issue, that Ukraine will join with Nato.

You arrive at the airport and find out that the plane you're due to fly on is a Boeing 737 max and the airline is one of those remaining that have not suspended it from the fleet.
What do you do?

For the most part  the 4 hour HBO documentary is a gripping account of 2 boys and their family's journey through the experience of being sexually abused in the full glare of pop stardom. It starts with the initial grooming, the obsessive nature of the grooming, the manipulation of the family, the lure of pop stardom, the sexual abuse itself, the self denials, the lies, the repression of the abuse trauma, the damaging psychological effects of the trauma, finally the shit hits the fan and whole families have to deal with the aftermath of the truth of what had been really happening all those years to the children in the company of Jackson.
As a piece of filmmaking  it's a brilliant documentary on sexual abuse, unparalleled.

It's also an indictment of a pedophile who just happens to be the world's most popular musician. But most rational people who were aware of signs of pedophilia and had examined the existing evidence, had already concluded to a reasonable certainty that Jackson was a pedophile and that his obsessive interest in children had a sexual attraction.

He had admitted to playing and sleeping with children separately in a remote room locked away in a basement. He was openly obsessed with children who were ever present in his life. The children (7 year olds) engaged in highly sexualised dance routines with him publicly on stage. Jackson's personality was evidently damaged and tales of abuse inflicted upon him as a child were many.
He had been dogged by persistent allegations of sexual abuse. The strongest evidenced case was bought off before it came to court with US$22m. Now the picture of the pedophile is fully formed.

Jackson's legacy will be stripped away from public life. Endorsing Jackson in public in any form will forever be associated with endorsing sex abuse pedophilia.  Every public image of Jackson will be removed, his wax images will be melted. Good riddance.

Unusual timing for such a documentary (sat evening)  but that's what CH 4 went for in what I thought was an excellent documentary on the Ballymurphy Massacre of 1971, executed by the same parachute regiment that carried out the Bloody Sunday murders.
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/ballymurphy-massacre-belfast-northern-ireland-troubles-bloody-sunday/

In the immortal words of Arthur Koestler, Kitson and his soldiers were the  "scum of the earth".

Like the Dubs, this thread is late in coming.

Mostly its the same team for Monaghan, newcomer Michael Bannigan (Aghnamullen) starts instead of Kieran Duffy and Colin Walshe's return is imminent, he's on the subs bench. 

Clones awaits

Dick was the only remaining echo from the last millennium playing senior county this year.
Probably not the most popular player when Banty was in charge, Dick was the enforcer, pugilist and 'declaimer' in the front line, but he had the ability to be much more than an irritant on the field.
In latter years he firmly planted his football ability to the fore of his legacy under O'Rourke and a firm fan's favourite. Great for him to win 2 Ulster championship medals after the many years of drought.

The Battle of the  Depressed and it's being played in Blayney.
Donegal on a relative downer, Monaghan already in the pits.
As it stands, Donegal should have too much of whatever they have, for Monaghan.
But maybe we will play a midfielder in midfield instead of being sterilised at FF. We always have hope.

It's been 5 years  coming but Radovan Karadzic has lived long enough to be found guilty of genocide and sentenced to 40 years.
Genocide at Srebenica of course,  but it  should also be mentioned that it was the scene of one of the greatest acts of cowardice by NATO and  an armed 800 strong UN force (Dutch) under the command of Thom Karremans, who was promoted after his ignominious retreat to Netherlands.

Is this an example of  fallacious extrapolation? if not what is it?

Jack says he saw  Jill drive recklessly the other day, drove too fast down a city street, possibly endangering pedestrians.

Jill says, because you criticise my driving  by claiming that I drove carelessly,  that means you are making the claim that I am a careless person, therefore you are saying I am a careless nurse as well.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Fallacy_of_extrapolation

Referee: Cormac Reilly
Monaghan are made hot favorites to win this game this weekend.  A false reflection I think.
Down are supposedly coming to Clones with their tails between their legs and we are supposedly on a high after a fortunate enough win in Roscommon.
Though I  fancy us to win because i'm biased  and we usually win these type of games at home against all (sweet, sour and bitter) ulster rivals.

The winners have a chance at promotion and the losers can just look to securing their 2nd Div status, so there are no losers from this game.
I'd say promotion is most probably between the 4 Ulster teams, Donegal and one other.
Will Armagh's 2 day extra rest be enough of an advantage here?
Will it stop raining in Armagh?
Probably will be a tight game, I don't think there's much between the Axis of (insert your own word here), Armagh, Down and Monaghan.

[Monaghan team]

The clash of the O'Rourkes.

Monaghan team
Rory Beggan;
Ryan Wylie, Drew Wylie, Fintan Kelly;
Colin Walshe, Dessie Mone, Pádraic Keenan;
      Gavin Doogan, Paul Finlay;
Kieran Hughes, Christopher McGuinness, Pádraig Donaghy;
Dermot Malone, Jack McCarron, Conor McManus (Capt.).

We have added a bit of beef to the team with both Mone and  Donaghy  in the starting line up. I don't how we got ambushed by Donegal, one of those flukes I suppose, but I expect us to get back to winning ways here, just a matter of keeping the scorebord ticking over.

Seeing as the host county supporters are non existent or just can't be bothered to start the thread, somebody has to do it.

Table topping Donegal doing purgatory time in Div 2, against a Monaghan team who have just had a couple of soft warm up league games. Hard to tell if we are ready for this game which makes it interesting  - meeting a credible team in demonstrably good form.
Usually we beat Donegal, it's one of those inexplicable mysteries of life. Long may that tradition continue.

Before the ink has dried on election promises, FG/Lab have decided to tell Paddy what they will do

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0306/programme_for_national_government.pdf


'The new Government supports the objectives of the EU/IMF Programme of Support i.e. restructuring and recapitalising the banking system, achieving fiscal stability and returning the Irish economy to growth.'

That was easy, why didn't they clearly say so before the election?

'In our engagement with the lenders, we will pursue a number of different strategies to achieve this end'.

1. 'seek a reduced interest rate'

and ?  what about unsecured bondholder debt? Maybe thats all part of a secret strategy?

2. 'avoiding further down-grades to our sovereign credit rating by setting further capital spend by the State on bank re-capitalisation'

ie. pour more state money into the banks after some solvency test.

The rest is just about how to extract more cents from Paddy,

On state asset stripping to help pay for banking losses and needy banker's bonuses

´A 21st century "Smart Grid": Beginning with the hand-over of ESB's transmission assets to Eirgrid, we will create a new 'Smart Grid' company with ultimate full ownership and responsibility for the development of Ireland's electricity and gas networks.´

Is that Eirgrid plc?

What should have happened in Ireland has just happened in EU member state Denmark.
Denmark's first bank collapse since their blanket State guarantee ran out.
Denmark is not in the Euro zone.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970204098404576130350689117480.html
bad news for Amagerbanken's investors and its roughly 700 depositors, whose accounts were worth more than the country's deposit-guarantee limit of 100,000 euros ($135,000). Shareholders and holders of subordinated debt saw their investments wiped out, while holders of senior debt are facing a haircut, or a reduction in asset value.

It leads me to believe that Ireland cannot survive inside the Euro zone.
The CBI is subject to the ECB. Unless the sovereign interests of the citizens can be protected in negotiations, we should plan to leave the Euro.
More ideal would have been strong negotiations with the ECB before the blanket guarantee ran out in Sept 2010.
Then, cash reserves €23bn and the pension fund €25bn, were decent enough and negotiations could have been made with the IMF for any extra funding needed - some   €15bn or so to back up an independent currency.
Contrary to common opinion, the IMF don't give a fiddlers about bondholders taking heavy haircuts, they support governments to do that. But the IMF do care that any money they themselves loan to a State, is repaid. 
It is the ECB that has dictated the plan of economic destruction.
I am not persuaded by the arguments of the economists that we can negotiate to protect our citizens from
the rapacious ECB.

At this stage, unfortunately some of the cash reserves have been raided and some of the IMF facility has been used to pay bank debt. But it is never too late to make a plan B, to salvage our sovereignty.

Congratulations to Armagh on a deserved victory and winning the right to meet Monaghan.

Where is this game going to be played? not Clones?

Time: 2 30 PM, Venue: Castlebar
Referee: Rory Hickey
TG4 live coverage.

It's not hard to be humble about Monaghan's chances against hot favourites Mayo in this game.
Especially after Mayo winning away at Kerry and Monaghan only with a useful practice game under their belt against a misfiring Derry team.
Last time we met 4 years ago, a late Monaghan goal took away a little of the scoreboard gloss but not from Mayo's emphatic performance in outclassing Monaghan on the pitch.

If we don't lose by much, then 4 points might be enough to survive, I'm sure Banty will mention that in his pre-match talk

About one year into his tenure as US President, Obama seems to be doing just as poorly on the international front as he is on the domestic front. Oslo (Nobel Prize) and Copenhagen (Environment Conference) were both disastrous in terms of public relations, if nothing else.
On the home front, the health care bill seems to be mired again, unemployment is increasing, prices are rising, terrorism - or allegation of terrorism - is once again an occurrence  and ordinary civil liberties are being eroded further.
Obama's key economic and military  policies  are little different from that of Bush. And, though Obama speaks more
coherently than his predecessor, the content of his speeches is comparably inane and his conduct with others is comparably tactless.
At this rate, how long will it be before he makes Bush look good.

Attending a Chris de Burgh concert would not be a part of my universe but I had to admire the man's style of retort to another poncy Irish Times review of his recent Gaiety gig.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0911/1224254268225.html