The lady doth use her brain too much?

I don’t especially like Hilary Clinton, and I’d rather not have a world leader elected “just because she’s a woman”. But I wouldn’t mind having someone highly intelligent in charge of the big red button that says “Let’s Blow Up The World Today”. That’s just a preference of mine, call me crazy, or a democrat, or whatever you like.

The multiple news stories floating around about Hilary Clinton today make me want to physically assault all men, and most women.

Here we go.

Number one - Hilary wore a shirt that made her look like a woman. Holy Mary Mother of God what next. George wore a look on his face that made him look like an imbecile, half the world found this charming. Can we please stop trying to hold womankind responsible for the fact that we have breasts? Is it that we are supposed to have mass mastectomies before entering a board room or daring to cross the threshold of a parliament building?? Hilary is female. She’s a girl. She has boobs. Move on people.

Number two - Hilary wasn’t always a senator, and in fact before she was a senator, or the wife of the worlds most famous philanderer, she was a student who wrote letters to a friend. Stop the fricking presses. The media both here and across the water has been going crazy lately trying to hunt down ‘irresponsible’ politicians who had a life before they got themselves elected. I still don’t see how we can feign surprise at the people who grew up in the 60s and 70s having occasionally inhaled, but I suppose that’s the beauty of hypocrisy-in-action. Here we have a woman who, when in her early twenties, abhorred the many, many mind-altering drugs that were floating freely around her in all directions, and instead had the crass indecency to occasionally question herself and her own emotional development in private letters to a friend. What is the world coming to.

The fact that her suitability as a leader is being openly questioned on this basis genuinely offends me. In fact, a lengthy attack was launched on her in Carl Bernstein’s biography (and no doubt elsewhere!), because of a family history of depression. I swear to god this appeared in print and is intended as a slur against the woman: “Clinton’s uncle made a failed suicide attempt, and her two brothers are also prone to melancholy” and as if that weren’t awful enough, “The book says her “emotional state” was “as fragile as it had ever been” in late 1994 after her close friend Vince Foster had committed suicide, her father had died and the rejection of her healthcare proposals had put Democrats on the road to a crushing mid-term electoral defeat.” In other words, the woman had the kind of year that most of us could barely survive, both personally and professionally, and how dare she falter even for a moment?

This on a day when more research (as if we needed it) illustrates how widespread depression is in our wonderful modern society - not to mention how misunderstood it is.

This when political leaders all over the place are talking about Mental Health Initiatives

What really strikes me about what I’ve read of these mystical magical letters - other than ‘thanks for selling my letters to the press mate’ - is that she comes across as extremely intelligent. Young, a bit confuddled (but who isn’t), but really, genuinely intelligent. Let’s be honest, that’s the real problem here.

Boobs AND Brains. Hell no. Down with that sort of thing.

How to p*ss off 400,000 people in one go

Learner drivers finally being held accountable? No way!

Apparently measures that have been talked about for yonks (yes, that is a word) are going to be implemented in the very near future - the lack of a need for new legislation for the first bits being the key to this speediness. I’m delighted. I know it will interfere with my plans to be designated driver for the month of September (rugby season - yuck), but if it interferes with the deaths of hundreds of people then frankly I’m happy to pay for the taxis.

The first set of measures include banning of “Ooh I have my second provisional so I’ll just drive by myself despite being completely unqualified to do so” and ensuring that you can’t apply for your test until you’ve had your provisional licence for six months. Later steps will apparently include a mandatory level of professional driving instruction, which I think is a fantastic idea though I would wonder about the feasibility of it if lessons cost €40 a pop. Multiply by 20 and suddenly the system becomes a little more elitist than might be productive.

I know I’ve mentioned this previously, but it really bugs me that there are people giving out about this.

I do have a certain amount of sympathy for, say, a mother of three young children who has to drive them to school and is about to be banned from driving by herself - but realistically this is a person who has been blatantly flouting the law of the land for years. A group of people I have absolutely no sympathy for is/are those who claim it would be too difficult for them to pass a test now because they’ve been driving for years and picked up too many bad habits. Is that supposed to be a joke? Does it not tell you something about the way you’re driving?

A close friend of mine who is racing me to the driving test was shocked when I mentioned last week that these new measures may be coming into force. I’ll be the first to admit that the ability to just get out and drive is what has given her 99% of her driving confidence, but in all honesty I think I’m gaining just as much confidence with someone in the car despite the fact that legally at the moment I could drive to Mayo and back by myself.

This shouldn’t be a news story, this should all have happened years ago. The sooner they get everything sorted the safer our roads will be.

Lenihans in the News: Part II

‘The other Lenihan‘ is also in the news today, with another of our ‘national problems’ : how will we deal with the delightfully termed Integration Issue.

Again, it’s good to see someone at least seeming to tackle the issue head on but by the same token, are the Messrs Lenihan merely paying lipservice to their new titles while silly season is in full swing?

It’s all very well to acknowledge that there may be problems in the future if we ghetto-ise all incoming foreign nationals at this stage - and it’s perfectly valid to admit that many “Irish” (capital I) families may become distressed when the schools in their areas come under pressure from the sheer number of immigrant families arising. The vital thing is that we deal with this now, immediately - in fact if we’re going to be honest about it, we needed to deal with this five years ago. If we want to have a livable (sp?) society in ten years time, we need to provide the facilities and infrastructure and systems now, so that the tensions that Lenihan hints at here don’t have to arise.

Let’s not give people a supposed excuse for intolerance.

Lenihans in the News: Part I

The idea that the drink culture in this country may actually be challenged for once is astounding. The fact that a fianna fail minister, even in doing so, insists on defending the “poor little publicans”, is not.

I am sincerely delighted that this issue is being raised, but a little bit more sincerity from the people raising it wouldn’t go astray. I have a feeling Brian Lenihan really is trying to deal with the situation in as much as he can, but I wonder who exactly is reining him in. It’s not very useful to have a minister speak out against our ‘drinking culture’ while actively defending our ‘culture of social drinking’:

“I think the publicans and the on-licence trade have been unfairly targeted as the prime culprits in promoting our alcohol culture… It has always been part of our culture that a social drink is acceptable and I am not questioning that”

I wonder what it will take for someone to stand up and really tackle it. Hundreds of families are being destroyed on a weekly, if not a daily basis, and as Medb Ruane points out “The State leapt into action to tackle smoking on behalf of all the people. But mention the risks of passive drinking and you sound like a spoilsport from Mars.”

Surely someone in the Dáil has been personally affected by our ongoing national emergency. Surely someone sitting at the cabinet table has. Statistically they must have been. So how has that person, or rather how have those people, stayed quiet? How much longer will they stay quiet?

Starting the week with a Good News Story

How often do you get to see a genuine good-news story on the front page of the Irish Times on a Monday morning?

When I heard that someone from Cork had won €16 million on a quickpick my immediate thought was “Lucky B******s” - though this was almost immediately followed by the hope that it was someone for whom the money might make a real difference. I don’t like to suggest that some people deserve such things more than others, but it is somewhat true, and if a young entrepreneur with a million in the bank already and no financial responsibilities had gotten the cash it just wouldn’t be as sweet as the real story.

The fact that the winners are a family of five children and two hardworking parents is the kind of story that makes you have a bit more hope on a Monday morning. Helen Cunningham has only been on holidays once, and has raised five children, one of whom, as no doubt every paper will report, ‘is special needs’. If ever there was a lady who deserves a round-the-world trip and a few other dreams coming true, it sounds like she might be it.

Lift Life

These days I’m spending too much time in a lift. Not always the same lift, one of five, but nonetheless, in lifts I am spending all my time. Tis the problem with working on the top floor of a very tall building.

It sounds like a silly thing to be preoccupied with I know, but when it takes you ten minutes to start your lunch break because of the idiots messing with the lift (and by messing I mean opening and closing doors as often as possible, hopping in and out, insisting on stopping at every floor, etc etc the list goes on…)

Here’s something I noticed though. Most lifts have a limit of about 1000kg, which is apparently 13 people. Now I assume this is based on a simple division of 1000kg by ‘average human weight’ - but the lift I was in could barely fit 8 people. The way I see it the signs should be altered “can carry weight of 13 people, but let’s be honest, more than 6 and it gets a little too cosy, and more than 8 and we’re all making new friends we never wanted”…

Lift etiquette is another thing I’m getting far too sensitive about. When I get in the lift, not least because I’m either going to the very top or the very bottom floor, I choose my floor and step to the back of the lift to let others in. I figure this is standard procedure, not to mention being the polite thing to do. But there are a scary number of people who think “I’ll stand straight in front of the door in the very middle” and even more who think “that girl standing at the back must want me to elbow her in the face and then squash my large bag/ass/umbrella into her”… these people have a very warped opinion of me it seems…

I miss stairs, and I wish it was even vaguely practical for me to simply use the stairs and ignore them all. No such luck - or maybe just no such lungs?!

Thought for the day

I stumbled upon (well, not literally) this MAJ thesis about the impact of technology on journalism as a profession.

It’s something I’ve often thought about, not least because I vividly remember making my own ‘newspapers’ when I was a kid with a typewriter and lots of pritt stick. The paper is interesting in that it illustrates just how recently professional papers were produced in a not too dissimilar fashion. There’s a chapter of case studies which is definitely worth a read if it’s a topic you’re even vaguely interested in.

What I enjoyed most about it is the analysis/commentary on the real impact of technology - the fact that on the one hand, things should happen quicker and editors should have more time, but as it turns out deadlines hit reporters earlier, and somehow, in some ways, things got a bit crazier instead. It’s also interesting to see that sub-editors were seemingly so distracted by the new technology that for a while they forgot what they were there for in the first place and the journalism itself seemed to slip a notch.

I may need to go hunting for a more recent analysis of the same kind of thing - this one was written in 1996 when it was all in many ways just getting started, but I would imagine both perspectives and practices have changed significantly since then.

Gormley vs. Litter

Glad to see talk of a levy on chewing gum/fast food rubbish is starting again courtesy of Mr Gormley.

Whatever your take on the Greens in government (should they be there, should we care, etc) it’s beginning to frustrate me that no matter what they do it seems to be wrong.

Example: Ryan flies transatlantic, pays for carbon credits to make up for it, and is using subway when he gets to New York instead of cars etc. Somehow this gets reported as “yeah but that’s not good enough”

When is the last time any other minister even tried to take those kind of steps?

(and that’s not a rhetorical question - I’d be genuinely interested to know)

On a related note, this new [english] carbon footprint ad is (both visually and thematically) fantastic…

The trial we can’t get away from…

It’s finally over, and I’m not going to comment on it now because I didn’t then and it all got to me too much anyway.

But I  will say this.

Nobody in this country needed to know what JO’R had for his Sunday lunch. Even fewer needed to know his prison number. And for the love of all that is good and/or holy, what is the purpose of this sentence:

” Last night he was taken to the Midlands Prison where he will serve his term alongside convicted sex offenders”

Two children have lost everything. Does every paper in the country really have to keep making it worse??

She got the DEATHly part right…

Reading the final Harry Potter book was very, very difficult - for a variety of reasons. The usual excitement of finally getting my hands on the next installment was seriously tainted by the fact that the end was near - this made the last 50 pages or so especially troublesome. But given that I was to remain a hermit of sorts until I got to page 607, it had to be done.

I’m not going to give away anything that happened, because frankly I’d rather not be that person. I read in the papers on Sunday about some girl who was queueing outside Eason’s at midnight but had already checked the ending on the internet, which makes absolutely no sense in my head. Surely if you know what’s going to happen anyway, get a good night’s sleep and stroll down to the siopa after breakfast on Saturday?

Anyhoo, high praise indeed is due to Isabel Hayes who managed to review the book on page 3 of the Tribune without giving away anything, at all. Nice one.

As to the book, the girl done good. It’s an incredibly energetic read, in that it took a lot of concentration to read and I imagine it took a hell of a lot of energy to write. The book ties everything together, including loose ends many won’t have realised were loose ends to begin with!

One thing that struck me reading it was that it’s going to be very difficult to turn it into a kid-friendly film. It’s a bloodbath, and when JKR announced that 2 major characters would die I wonder if she maybe forgot to multiply by 10… or more…

Some of the biggest ’surprises’ were admittedly things I had guessed anyway - possibly because I thought about it a little too much? - but because of how well it was done that didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of it at all, which is some achievement. Again, kudos JKR.

So. HP is all over. In about two years that’s going to be really confusing. It’s strange finishing a book and feeling such a blatant void afterwards.

The debate will now rage as to who will be the next Harry, or the next JK. I suppose the important thing is that there might be one - one book, or one character, that gets a new generation to read - not only to read, but to read compulsively.

I know she’s a very rich lady, and in many ways has benefited beyond her wildest dreams from the story of a boy who found out he was a wizard, but JK Rowling deserves a huge big thank you from every parent, child, and adult with an active inner child, who has loved every minute of the magic she created.