Archive for 'Politics'
Politics In Ireland site re-vamp
Posted on September 15, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Ireland, Politics.
The updated Irish Politics site is now live. This is a tremendous resource for anyone interested in what people on the ground are writing about politics here.
It is a site that watches for any blog posts that mention a TD’s name and provides a summary of that post on the site. It is party neutral and is in no way partisan.
Those with blogs can add a widget which displays the latest politics posts on their own blog sidebar. Of course readers can now subscribe by email to get all the latest posts.
1 Comment
Have your say on election count day!
Posted on May 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Ireland, Politics.
All details over at IrishElection.com. Well worth checking out.
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How not to get my vote
Posted on April 22, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork, Ireland, Politics.
I cannot understand why Christy O’Sullivan thinks he’ll get a vote from me. Here is a guy shoe-horned in by FF at a national level who sends me flyers with absolutely no information on them about who he is, what he believes in, where he lives, what he has accomplished as a politician or why I should vote for him.
And of course his website doesn’t load!
Inserting this nobody over a well known local politician like Alan Coleman is a huge mistake by FF. I don’t know how well Coleman would have done in this climate but at least he has a known reputation.
I will not vote for anonymous candidates from any party.
35 Comments
Traffic Lights on Food - give me patience.
Posted on January 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Commentary, Cooking, Food, Politics.
It appears the opposition parties have started their campaign to lose the next general election with their latest himbo/bimbo scheme which they picked up from the UK. They want traffic lights on food to indicate the levels of salt, sugar and fat. Not only are the stuck in the 1980’s with the fat obsession, but they show such a basic mis-understanding of human nature that the scheme was obviously devised by a marxist.
If I want to buy fat-laden, carb-laden, salt-laden Tayto, I bloody will and they chances of me looking at some insulting graphics are zero. When I smoked, you could have put pictures of sliced open cancerous lungs on the box and I’d happily have puffed away.
Information is only useful to those seeking it. If we want nutrition information then we’ll use the amazing human ability to read to find out what is in the box. “oh but people don’t know what a safe level of salt is, so our traffic light system will enable them to figure this out without actually ever having to think”. “Next year, we’ll be bringing in a system which does an instant analysis of your blood and won’t let you buy anything with too much salt or sugar”.
I was pleasantly surprised that FF told the opposition to get a clue and that they would not be bringing in such a scheme.
The first political party which starts a campaign to destroy the ever growing nanny state gets my vote.
You want people to eat properly? Then make Home Economics, Social & Scientific, Cooking compulsory in schools for both boys and girls starting around age 7. Hell, you could do a double whammy and teach it through Irish.
Technorati Tags: Traffic+Lights, Food, Labour, Fine+Gael, Marxism, Nanny+State, Nutrition, Intelligence, Cop+On, Information, Knowledge, Cooking, Tayto
11 Comments
Time for my bi-annual political post
Posted on July 26, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Politics.
At this stage I’m sick to the back teeth of the moral relativism that passes for liberal thought in modern Europe and particularly in Ireland. Recent events in the Middle East have just amplified the noise. So it is a joy to read something as reasoned and balanced as Norm Geras’ post on what is happening in Lebanon. Read the questions at the end very carefully and maybe you’ll learn something about yourself from your answers.
I’m surprised that so many of the old left in Britain have been able to move to a place politically where I can agree with much of what they say. It is a pity that the Irish left can still be found associating themselves with Ba’athist-hugging scumbags like George Galloway or Pol Pot groupies like Noam Chomsky.
[tags]Lebanon, Israel, Norm Geras, Pol Pot, Noam Chomsky, George Galloway, Baath party[/tags]
10 Comments
Slight colour blindness
Posted on April 2, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Ireland, Politics, Uncategorized.
This would be funny if over 2000 people hadn’t been murdered by terrorists in the past thirty five years on this island.
I was just reading the latest edition of my local Bandon Opinion and saw an ad by Sinn Fein Bandon encouraging people to wear the Easter Lily.
Let me just quote the important bit: “combining the green, white and saffron of our national flag”. Green……White…..SAFFRON? Which national flag are these cretins referring to? That of Tuvalu maybe or Micronesia or maybe Latvia?
Obviously Sinn Fein is now run by middle class foodies who like nothing better than a delicate saffron flavoured risotto.
Just when you think they are getting a clue, you are reminded of what you are dealing with.
[tags]Sinn Fein, National Flag, Green, White, Orange, Saffron[/tags]
No Comments
Movie about Rwanda
Posted on March 10, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Politics.
About a month ago a guy named Eoin Feeley posted a comment on my July post about 07/07. He asked me to highlight two blogs concerned with a new movie about the genocide in Rwanda called “Shooting Dogs” starring John Hurt.
I was a bit suprised that he referred to my blog as political because apart from the odd dig at Islamo-fascists and their apologists, I mainly talk about food!
Start Rant:
But I have always been deeply angry about what happened in Rwanda and how the world just stood back and let it happen, just like they are doing all over again in Darfur. Rwanda was the nadir of the Clinton adminstration and should surely have precluded Kofi Annan from ever becoming Secretary General of the UN. The same people who call George Bush and Ariel Sharon mass murderers seem to have no problem idolising those two cowards with their hands soaked in the blood of Africans.
End Rant.
In any case, apologies to Eoin for not posting this sooner. If you want to find out more about the movie (given that I know nothing about it!) head on over to the Official Blog and The Rwandan Survivors Blog.
[tags]Rwanda, Rwandan Survivors, Shooting Dogs, Genocide, UN, Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton[/tags]
No Comments
Sausage Semi-Success Satisfies
Posted on February 13, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cooking, Food, Politics.
And so on to attempt number three. This time I followed the advice of Podchef Neal and others regarding keeping everything as cold as possible when trying to mince the pork. So I stood outside for half an hour.
More usefully, I put the mincer attachment in the freezer for the day and used meat which had barely defrosted. Lo and behold, the meat flew through the mincer. I was using the coarsest holeage (I’m tired, I have no idea what the right term is for that) and so had to run the meat through again. Even tho I had re-cooled eveything (I lay in a bath of ice water for 10 minutes), it must not have been enough because the second run had a bit of jammage (feel free to use that new word in conversation). But still far far better than before.
I went with a very simple flavouring of a hint of parsley, sage, thyme and oregano all fresh from the cat wee area at the front of the house, a good blast of white pepper and some salt. I probably didn’t use enough bread crumbs. This time I went with hog casings which are the bigger ones. The fillage was a bit fiddly but went fine and the linkage was a disaster with the resulting sossies ranging from 1 inch to 6 inches (or 0.25cm to 3cm on a female ruler).
The hangage went fine overnight and I cooked them up the following morning. During frying I realised my biggest mistake - overfillage of the sausages. The meat started pushing out through the ends of the casings and after ten minutes I must have had over a centimetre of liquid in the pan.
It was therefore no surprise that they were very dry again and the texture was too dense due to the lack of bread crumbs. But they tasted really great, as good as shop bought in my humble estimation. I had them with a lovely organic egg from Tesco and some very succulent Danish rashers from the same source.
I highly recommend that you temporarily buy these tasty offerings from Denmark, at least whilst Riots R Us are having this week’s riot on the topic of cartoons. Next week’s riot will be back to the usual topic of why America is the great satan and will be protesting NBC’s cancellation of “Jihad Idol”.
Actually, it might be a good idea to stock up on bacon in general. At the rate our dear president is offering to swap our rights for improved business in the Middle East, she’ll probably have got the eating of pork banned in Ireland by the end of her trip.
Three attempts at sausage making and still not perfect. A lesser man would give up and just buy Denny. But then I’ve been cooking steaks for 20 years and I still get that wrong on a regular basis. I think the next attempt will focus on keeping them juicy. One question I still have on filler is whether the 20% or so that is recommended is by weight or volume. It’d surely take a whole hell of a lot of breadcrumbs to make up 20%?
[tags]sausages, Kenwood Chef, Danish Bacon, Mary McAleese, The Irish People, The Life of Brian[/tags]
5 Comments
This week we’ll be mostly buying Lego and Carlsberg
Posted on February 6, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Personal, Politics.
And maybe some of their bacon for a change.
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Yeah, I know it’s totally anal but…
Posted on September 9, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Politics.
I’ve always found the name of “Cafe Mao” offensive. I ate there once - mediocre at best. They are probably as good at cooking food as Mao was at growing it. In my little fantasy world, I’d love to set up a little stall outside of the Cafe and sell Pol Pot Noodles. Wonder how long before someone would complain?
As ever, someone else expresses this thought so much better than I can.
From Prickly City:
1 Comment
Unite Against Terror
Posted on August 7, 2005, by Conor, under Politics.
An impressive site. Sign up here:
Well worth reading Christopher Hitchins, John Strawson and Alan and Franziska Norman.
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You gotta love Londoners
Posted on July 11, 2005, by Conor, under Politics.
30 years of bombings by IRA scum achieved nothing. Mass murderers like Martin Ferris may think that cowardly bombings in places like Warrington were different to what happened last week. Civilized people know there is no difference between the actions of Irish fascists and Islamo-Fascists. These words from a Londoner say it all:
A Letter To The Terrorists, From London
Amen brother. You have the support of all Irish democrats and always will have.
And for a bit of lighter-hearted support:
3 Comments
