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Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Drudge Non-Report


An hour ago, I tried to access a story twice from the website drudgereport.com - a famously right-leaning news portal (it broke the Lewinsky scandal in 1998).

The story was about how George W. Bush's approval ratings have dropped to 34% and Cheney's to 18%. This was the headline article and I clicked into into the link, which was to a report on the CBS News website.

As soon as I got to it, a malfunction occured and I had to close the website.

I went straight back to drudge and suddenly the headline story had changed to 'Bush praises the rise of alternative press [i.e. like Drudge] over alternative media'.

The story about the 34% approval has vanished. It hasn't even been moved lower down the page and with a smaller headline. It's just gone.

I clicked into the seperate CBS news link from Drudge, found the approval rating story and the same thing happened: an explorer error occured and I had to close down the page.

W. is already monitoring phonecalls and emails. Are web links to critical news reports next?

Dublin Riots, Saturday 25th February 2006






Monday, February 20, 2006

No Baft-ling results here


Brokeback Mountain, rebranded by producer James Schamus as the "gay shepherd" movie, continued its award landslide in London last night by claiming 4 prizes at the Orange British Academy Film Awards.

The 8 times Oscar nominated movie took the awards for Best Film and Best Director for Ang Lee, who had previously won this Bafta for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. The movie also won the award for Adapted Screenplay and, in a surprise victory, Best Supporting Actor for 25 year old Jake Gyllenhaal.

Philip Seymour Hoffman won his 15th Best Actor prize this year for his mesmerising portrayal of author Truman Capote in Capote. Hoffman is on an almost unbeatable roll and now looks sure to be crowned Best Actor at the Oscars in March. Similarly, the non-attending Reese Witherspoon was named Best Actress for her role as June Carter in Walk the Line. This is Witherspoon's 11th Best Actress citation, which, in addition to her SAG and Golden Globe, puts her ahead of closest competitor Felicity Huffman for the Best Actress Oscar.

Elsewhere, ensemble drama Crash took home two awards: Best Original Screenplay for writer-director Paul Haggis and Best Supporting Actress for Thandie Newton. Newton has not figured in any of the other awards races but Supporting Actress favourite Rachel Weisz was nominated in the Lead category, leaving the race open for a new face to emerge.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit took the prize for Best British Film.

Compere for the night was the inimitably witty Stephen Fry, who oversaw a laid-back and mercifully short ceremony. The results are largely in line with the other major pre-Oscar awards that have taken place so far. The one major difference was Supporting Actor. Gyllenhaal upset the favourite, George Clooney, who was nominated twice in the category, for Syriana and his self-directed Good Night and Good Luck. The race for the Supporting Actor Oscar is now more fractured and uncertain than ever: Clooney won the Golden Globe, Paul Giamatti won the Screen Actors Guild and now Gyllenhaal the Bafta. This win gives new momentum to Gyllenhaal's Oscar campaign in these crucial final weeks.


Blog Awards 2000, ahem, 2006


Well, the public voting for the Irish Blog Awards closed on Friday and the finalists have been announced. I didn't make it to the last round but [adopting best Oscar-losing face] I would like to congratulate all the nominees and wish them the best of luck in March. I am going to be gracious; I will not be bitter nor call into question the legitimacy of the vote.

To view the shortlist, go to www.florida2000.com...er, I mean, http://awards.ie/blogawards/

PS: Best of Luck to Wayne Cronin's blog Social Dublin - nominated for Best Arts and Culture Blog! Respect, my man.

Ten Ways Dick Cheney Can Kill You

Gotta love this.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

What's 'national' about out anthem?

A row started on the Ray D'arcy show on Today FM this morning about the fact that hardly anyone in this country knows the lyrics to our national anthem, 'Amhrán na Fiann'. Texts and emails flooded into the show that seemed equally divided between outrage and apathy: you should make the effort to learn it yourself versus what difference does it make?

So why can't most of the country sing along to this supposed expression of national pride and identity? It's a fascinating question with an answer that most people won't agree with or even entertain. Our national anthem is foreign to us. This national tune is expressed in a language that was imposed on this country after Independence by elite subscribers to over-zealous language revival movement, an imposition that aimed purely to define our culture from that of the coloniser. Adopting an Irish language national anthem totally ignores Ireland's centuries-long experience as a part of the British Empire and what that means linguistically.

We are an English speaking country. We were an English speaking country at the time of our Independence in 1922. At that point, we had been predominantly English speaking for over 70 years, as it was the only realistic option that people had to survive and prosper in the new political and cultural environment. It is a tragedy that we lost our language - but we did. You can argue all you want to the contrary but the fact of the matter remains that the status that the Irish language holds today is similar to that of an artefact in a museum. A language is a living, breathing thing and the language that has that status in Ireland is the English language.

No wonder we have such a confused sense of national identity. Is it any wonder that we don't know what we are or what we stand for as a nation? It is inconceivable for a country to have a national anthem that few understand and even fewer can join in with at moments of national pride. You must be ashamed that you don't know it in Irish but you must be more ashamed if you express a desire for it to be articulated in the language that you and your culture use in almost every aspect of your everyday life. We are a bizarre country in many ways.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

US Comics take aim at Cheney


The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ NBC

“Although it is beautiful here in California, the weather back East has been atrocious. There was so much snow in Washington, D.C., Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fat guy thinking it was a polar bear.

“That’s the big story over the weekend. ... Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 percent.”

“I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, ‘Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?”’

“Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine’s Day. It’s the new Dick Cheney cologne. It’s called Duck!”

‘Late Show with David Letterman,’ CBS

“Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It’s Dick Cheney.”

“But here is the sad part — before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy’s request for body armor.”


“We can’t get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney.”

“The guy who got gunned down, he is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor and fortunately the buck shot was deflected by wads of laundered cash. So he’s fine. He took a little in the wallet.”


‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,’ Comedy Central

“Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt ... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, [was] shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird.”

“Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... moms, dads, if you’re watching right now, I can’t emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don’t care what kind of lucrative contracts they’re trying to land, or energy regulations they’re trying to get lifted — it’s just not worth it.”

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Dick Cheney: Armed and Dangerous

We Can't Escape the X


This week marks the 14th anniversary of the tragic X Case, an event that, more than any other in recent times, forced Ireland to look long and hard at itself and ask what kind of country we were and what kind of country we wanted to be. The profound effect that this case had on our legal, constitutional and social systems is still not resolved to this day.

On 11th February, 1992, it emerged that the Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, had placed a High Court injunction on a 14 year old rape victim from travelling to the UK for an abortion. Abortion, as well as travelling for one and procuring information on the procedure, was illegal due to the disastrous Pro Life Amendment that was placed in the Irish Constitution in 1983. This reads as follows:

"The state acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right"

The young girl, X, had been raped by a trusted neighbour. Her parents had contacted the Gardai with a query about DNA evidence and so, the gardai had to report the family's intentions to the authorities.

The case grew more complicated as it emerged that X had vowed to kill herself if forced to carry on with the pregnancy - and in doing so highlighted the constitutional ambiguity regarding the health and life of the mother.

When the story broke, there was an unprecedented outcry. National and international news coverage was shocked that a modern country in the 1990s would act so callously towards a teenage rape victim. Martyn Turner published a cartoon in The Irish Times, reprinted the world over, that prefectly summed up the issue. The picture depicted a little girl holding a teddy bear, standing in a shape of Ireland as seen on maps, but with the whole island enclosed by barbed wire. The caption read: '17th February 1992: Internment in Ireland introduced for 14 year old girls'.

Mary Robinson sidestepped the institutional gag that precludes the President from saying anything political by stating that it was a time when the country would have to do some deep soul searching. Journalist Mary Holland and singer Sinead O'Connor came out and admitted that they had had abortions and called on the students of Ireland to take to the streets in protest against the High Court Order. Thousands of people attended a protest march in Dublin on Saturday 20th February.

The Supreme Court overturned the High Court decision by 3:2. The Court ruled that termination was legal where there was a proven threat to the life, as opposed to the health of the mother. X's threat of suicide meant that her life would be only saved by having an abortion.
The injunction was lifted and the family travelled to Manchester for the procedure. However, the girl miscarried naturally before it could take place.

Albert Reynolds had replaced Charlie Haughey as Taoiseach just one day before the X Case broke. The case was a source of huge national and international embarrassment and shame to the government and, in fact, the State was paying the legal costs for the X family in their challenge to overturn a State decision!

Three referenda were held as a response to the X Case. The Reynolds-O'Malley Fianna Fáil/PD government collapsed in acrimonious circumstances in November 1992 so the one polling day was chosen for the referenda and the national election. The electorate voted for the first two clauses - making it legal to travel for an abortion and legal to obtain information on the procedure. However, the 'substantive issue' was rejected. This sought to remove the threat of suicide as grounds for an abortion on Irish soil. The X Case Supreme Court interpretation stands to this day (in conflict with the Pro Life Amendment). An enormously unpopular, confusing and ultimately unsuccessful referendum was held in 2002 to again overturn the X Case ruling.

No government party since 2002 has committed to resolving the issues raised by the X Case. Abortion is the one issue that this country has never properly come to grips with. Instead, we bury our heads in the sand and close our eyes and ears to the 6,000 Irish women who travel to the UK every year for an abortion.

Like the majority of Irish people, I find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to come down on one side in favour or against abortion. What we do know is that the X Case was not an isolated incident - literally, in fact, since our joke of a legal system had the rapist at the centre of the X Case back on the streets within 3 years, driving a taxi and attacking more girls.

The X Case struck right at the soul of modern Ireland. I've argued in the past that modern, Celtic Tiger Ireland was born in 1990 when the election of Mary Robinson marked a significant revolt against tradition and orthodoxy. The feel-good factor from Italia '90 pre-empted the change in the country's mood. The national finances finally seemed to be getting in order and the economy was on the upturn. At the 1994 Eurovision in Dublin, Riverdance was unleashed as a perfect symbol for the new, economically-miraculous Ireland: cool (at the time!), sexy, energetic - and with Americans at the helm!! At that same event, the winning song 'Rock and Roll Kids' seemed to say goodbye to the miserable past just as Flatley et all were high-kicking us into the future.

But the Ireland-born-in-1990 argument means that this country is now a teenager - a not too-unsuitable analogy when you consider our immature attitudes to alcohol, sex and responsibility in general. Modern Ireland was an infant in 1992, making it even more ironic that the incident that made us grow up was one involving a baby. The new Ireland responded with compassion and sincerity to X's plight - and ensured that the country would not decend into the horrible culture war of the 1980s over the issue.

But the X Case continues to haunt us to this day. The issues it raised remain unresolved. It's the quintessential 'Irish solution to an Irish problem'. There can be no doubt that we have come a long way on social issues like divorce, contraception and homosexuality. The real test for our young nation will be when we finally try and get to the bottom of our number one social and cultural taboo. It won't be easy - but, then again, growing up never is.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Split Sides Mountain




Blog Awards


I just found out that I made it onto the longlist for an award at the first Irish Blog Awards. It's a great honour, especially since I haven't been in the running for anything since I won the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. It's all up to you now - the little people - to decide my fate. If I do make it to the final five, I promise to do a Halle Berry on the night (stop sniggering at the back).

http://awards.ie/blogawards/vote-now/