The Green Party are "Protecting Education"
Dan Boyle of the Green Party had a Facebook status today saying “Visiting the Young Scientist Exhibition today. Research and innovation that's where the future lies.”. I commented on this to the effect that “You'd want to start telling the government to invest in eduction in a meaningful manner so Dan.”. Dan's reply was to tell me that “Education is being protected”.
I hate to be given a little sententious reply such as this, so decided to follow this up a bit further, telling him:
Education was NOT protected. It was subject to the most horrific cuts it has ever been subjected to. I'll cite the loss of my job (as a teacher of 7 years) and my friends' jobs, and the many graduates that I know that couldn't get jobs in my defence. I'll cite the larger class sizes in my defence. I'll cite the less SNAs in my defence. I'll cite ... See Morethe cuts to the TY grant, the LCA grant, most other school grants in my defence.
And what will you say? The Green Party are against the cuts? So are all of the opposition parties. So are the teachers. So are the students. So are the parents. But it doesn't make a difference, Fianna Fåil did what Fianna Fåil wanted to do (with just a little nod to the Green Party).
You Have Taken Enough From Us Already
A letter, one of about 4000, sent to every TD, Senator, and MEP today from Contact.ie.
Dear TD,
You have taken enough from us already.
The idea that you are now to cut social welfare and child benefit is intolerable. You have taken enough from us already.
Presently, I am living on €204 a week, a big drop from the €500 that I was receiving last year as a teacher (wasn't that great pay after eight years in college and seven years teaching?) . If this is cut further you will be responsible for putting myself and my wife and kids in more financial difficulties that we can perhaps endure. YOU who are responsible for this crisis; YOU who presided over a system that encouraged greed, have a responsibility to come up with strategies to get us out of it, without harming those of us whom are innocent parties. As the unions (bless 'em) say, 'there is a better, fairer way'. You have taken enough from us already.
Floods and Flooding, Portumna, November 2009
Here begineth a series of photographs of the floods and flooding in Portumna. Click on any photo to see a large scale version of it.
A Litany of Abuse, Abuse, Abuse – Part 1
This is part one of a two part report, based on the Report by The Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. Part One deals with the generalities of the report – a damning indictment of the church in general for its handling of the reporting of clerical child sexual abuse, its cover up, and the comlicity (or otherwise) of the Gardaí. Part Two will look at the abuse, abuse, and more abuse handed out by individuals. Prepare yourself for some pretty sickening reading.
It begins, the Report by The Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, like this: ‘the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation was established to report on the handling by Church and State authorities of a representative sample of allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse against clerics’.
Just Checking Something - You Can Ignore This
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.
The Narrow Arguments of Nationalists
I have a friend on Facebook who posts many comments about Northern Ireland from a republican prespective. We've had many discussions about it; me arguing from an anarchist perspective and him from a repubican socialist one. His contention is that the North needs to get rid of the Brits to solve its problems, mine is that the problems are much more sociological and systemic.
