White Elephants & Bagels

FF seem determined to distract from the small matter of the economy with a range of other issues which are sure to piss at least some people off.

Did Eamon Ó Cuív really question the “DRINK (responsibly)” ads? Are Fianna Fáil members allowed to do that?

Did Jim Walsh think it was a surprise to anyone when him and his lovely friends decided that state sanctioned discrimination is actually kinda fun?

And on a related note, did Sen. Mary White not see the irony of her statement on newstalk this morning when she said “I don’t support gay marriage but I do support their human rights”?

Legitimislation

I for one am very excited about becoming a qualified cohabitant.

In the meantime, the best quote I’ve found about this whole malarky is from the original debate on decriminalisation in 1993, courtesy of one Nora Owen:

For goodness sake, we are not making it compulsory as if we should all go out and practise homosexuality as soon as this Bill is enacted. There is a feeling that this legislation is attacking heterosexuals and family life, but that is not the case. We are legislating for a basic human right.

A new kind of online service..

Papers today are full of stories about the availability of the contraceptive pill online courtesy of Dr. Thom.

What I don’t understand is how another service offered by the site isn’t being mentioned – photo assessment of your STI!?!

Surely a step too far? And seriously, where will those photos end up once they’ve been assessed?

Indra Sinha & the Bhopal Campaign

Quite a while ago, I wrote about Indra Sinha’s novel, Animal’s People, when I read it for the booker shortlist.

Sinha wrote in the guardian last week, and spoke on the Moncrieff radio show today, about the ongoing campaign to get Dow Chemicals and the Indian government to take action to make the Bhopal area a safe place to live.

You can read more about the Bhopal Medical Appeal and/or make donations here.

Lisbon postmortems begin

So it looks like Lisbon Treaty is being comprehensively rejected across the country, and media reports are showing more than a little bias, but then with all but one major political party on the same side I don’t know if you can really hold it against them.

One thing that did bug me about the Yes campaign was the tone of “Vote Yes, don’t worry about why”. I’m sure this wasn’t the intention, but the reasons giving for voting yes were far too vague compared to those presented by the no side. While some of the groups advocating a No vote were being deliberately alarmist, the fact is that they presented their arguments in soundbites that stuck in people’s heads, and “good for ireland, good for europe” etc couldn’t compete.

It will be interesting to see what happens now.

Will we be asked again a la Nice? Will they try to find a way around it? Will FF blame FG/Lab and vice versa?

Sunday papers should be fun & full anyway.

IMPAC goes to a debut novel – Yay!

Great to see the IMPAC award going to a first-time novel, particularly in light of the Booker short list having ignored a few too many.

Got around to reading De Niro’s Game a few weeks ago, wasn’t my favourite of the shortlisted books I had read (much preferred Let It Be Morning) but still a worthy winner, definitely worth taking a look at.

This is a bit scary…

A report presented to the Spelling Society in England at the weekend has suggested the removal of unnecessary vowels from the English language, because as it stands the language is too complicated.

Is this the proof of the txt spk pudding?