Siobhán looking her best

Siobhán looking her best, originally uploaded by ShankillFalls.

Cousin Siobhán preparing to start work doing some asbestos clearing (or it looks that way anyway) She's not mad all the time. Honest.

Those TV License ads

As anyone lucky enough to live in Ireland will know there have been a series of truly awful radio ads encouraging people to pay their TV license. All of the ads have been based around the threat of going to court and paying a large fine and of the ensuing embarrassment this will cause. None of the ads actually mention why one might feel that paying the license is the right thing to do. At the same time RTE (Ireland's state owned public broadcaster) is running a series of good quality TV ads promoting its own news service. They are an excellent reminder of why we pay the license and why it is worth every cent.

If anyone thinks the license is not worth it then just head on over stateside and spend some time watching Fox News. Be careful however, as too much exposure will lead to an odd feeling in your head as your brain makes a desperate bid for escape.

Cian4thebirds

Cian4thebirds, originally uploaded by ShankillFalls.

Cian chasing the pigeons in Stephen's Green - April, 05

"We must listen to the electorate"

No, no, no.

Our friends in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are having a general election on 5/5/5* and they are already full of the usual guff about focus groups and listening to the electorate. I don't suppose it has ever occurred to any of the parties (in blighty or anywhere else) that it might be a nice idea to have a set of beliefs that led to a set of policies that you then might try to convince the electorate were the right things to do. But no. Instead it is the usual stuff of having no policies and asking the electorate what would they like. "Lower taxes" Oh, how original. "You hate foreigners, oh we do too, vote for us."

Sigh....

* This date made me realise that next yeat we will have 6/6/6 which is going to be an excellent opportunity for nutcases of various types to predict all sorts of devilish occurences...... I'm looking forward to it.

There's only one story this week....

... and that is, of course, the death of Pope John Paul II. I am glad to see that RTE have suspended normal programming for the evening to have analysis of his life etc etc. I wonder if his death will have any effect on the numbers of people at Mass / Church tomorrow and, perhaps more interestingly, will it effect the number of people who go shopping since it has replaced Mass for most people.

I'm an old fart now so I remember the year of three popes (1978) and in those days when a pope died it was a BIG deal.......

Schiavo and stupidity

In the aftermath of Terri Schiavo's death it seems that the usual poilitical stupidity is going on in the US. According to a BBC report the Republican Tom DeLay is calling the courts "out of control".

"We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."

Perhaps Mr DeLay needs to have a look at his copy of the constitution so that he can learn about the fact that the judiciary is not meant to pay any attention to the fools in Congress nor to the president (whether it is idiot puppet boy Bush or a real one).

Oh well....