Monday, December 29, 2008

CSP member at Gaza demonstration!

So I went to the Latin Mass at 10:30, and then afterwards repaired to a café with some friends who thought my going to a pro-Palestinian demonstration bizarre and quixotic. But I was undeterred. After a hearty Irish breakfast I trudged across town towards O'Connell Street where the rally was to take place.

Turnout was large, there were definitely several hundred people present. Irish, Arab, young, old, punks, pensioners, angry young men, chatting mothers with buggies - all human life was there. Irish flags, Palestinian flags, black flags, placards. The far-left was represented too, of course. I'd been there about two minutes when a girl gave me an A4 leaflet from the Socialist Party, and a young man was prowling around selling a glossy magazine called Socialist Something-or-other. For a few minutes I stood at the edge of a crowd, feeling a bit awkward and wishing I had a flag or a placard or something. But the chanting soon got going. Free Free Palestine! Israel - Terrorist! George Bush - Terrorist! What do we want? - End the siege! And so on. You feel nervous the first time you join in the chanting, but by the second or third time you lose your inhibitions and bellow the slogans out with the rest. Passers-by stared. Shoppers, tourists in open-top buses. A few cars honked their horns in support. A pink limosine passed by emitting dionysian female squeals.

The speeches were impassioned. As well as members of the IPSC proper, there were others. A representative of SIPTU kept it short and to the point. Mary-Lou McDonald began her own speech by saying "Friends, I am sorry to be here. But I am proud to be here!" Fitting words. She'll be a tough opponent in the Euro elections in May. Richard Boyd-Barrett stayed true to the Socialist Workers Party tradition of speaking for too long, and using funny words like "unshamefacedly". A young Arab gave a ferocious speech in which he tore into the "cowardice" of Mubarak and other Arab leaders. But by that stage, things were winding down. I headed for home, grimly pleased with at least having added my voice to the chorus and vowing to write to my TD's and the Department of Justice.

I wonder how they would have reacted if I'd told them that a representative of the Christian Solidarity Party wished to say a few words? I hope it won't be too long before we do join in these protests. We in the CSP are Irish nationalists, and the fact that we have languished under foreign rule for so long binds us in a special way to the people of Palestine. And as a Christian party we are bound to solidarity with our fellow Christians, most of them Palestinian, in the Holy Land. I hope the CSP can soon officially join in protests like yesterday's. But it will take planning. We'll need flags, placards, leaflets and maybe a banner. And of course, most important of all, we'll need people. Yes, that was a hint!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Oh my God

Requiescant in pace.

What makes this really sick is that you know the international community is going to be pretty silent.

The Irish-Palestinian Solidarity campaign is organising emergency demos tomorrow (Sunday). I plan to attend the one in Dublin. The times are:

Dublin: 1pm, Spire, O'Connell Street

Belfast: 12:00, City Hall

Limerick: 1pm, city centre.

I know there'll be hundreds of Communists, Trotskyites and other assorted leftists there, but this is just too important for partisan squabbling.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Oh thank you, you're so kind!

Why the HECK don't we hear about this from our western Catholic media? Quite possibly the most perverse headline I've read all year.

Or this?

On this night of all nights, please spare a thought and a prayer for the (mostly Palestinian) Christians of the Holy Land.

Sorry to end before Christmas on a depressing note. Nollaig Shona agus Beannacht libh!

I don't much like the Irish Times ...

... but it does print good articles sometimes.

Read it, if you can get past the eurobabble. Turns out if the Lisbon Treaty does constitute a military alliance between member states.

As the media continue to churn out condemnations of the Pope by gay activists you have to wonder ...

... have any of them read the Pope's words at all?

Giles Fraser, for instance, a pro-homosexual Anglican, claims that "this is the sort of religious homophobia would be an alibi for all those who would do gay people harm."

Well, read for yourself the offending words and see if they fill you with a desire to rush out and attack homosexuals:

"It is necessary to have something like an ecology of man, understood in the right sense. It is not outdated metaphysics when the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and asks that this natural order be respected.

"This has to do with faith in the Creator and listening to the language of creation which, if disregarded, would be man's self-destruction and therefore a destruction of God's work itself.

"That which has come to be expressed and understood with the term "gender" effectively results in man's self-emancipation from creation (nature) and from the Creator. Man wants to do everything by himself and to decide always and exclusively about anything that concerns him personally. But this is to live against the truth, to live against the spirit creator." (Translation by Teresa Benedetta.)

That, believe it or not, is it. That's what has prompted Ann Louise-Gilligan to accuse the Pope of "denying her humanity" and Senator David Norris (in today's Indo) to call the Pope "an appalling man". A single mention of "gender", no mention at all of homosexuality.

What a lot of media-engineered hysteria. Damien Thompson has a wry take on the situation here.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Pope reiterates age-old Christian teaching, incurs wrath of (yawn) homosexual activists

The Irish Times (sort of) has the story here. Note a.) the melodramatic headline, b.) the lack of any kind of context - we are only told that the Pope was addressing the Curia, not when or for what reason - and c.) the absence of any quotation from his address except a few general and inoffensive words which are about as intolerant as a bowl of trifle. This didn't stop a certain "Rev." Sharon Ferguson, Chief Executive(!) of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, claiming that "It is comments like that that justify gay bashing."

But here's something that might give people pause for thought before rushing out to accuse the Pope of fomenting intolerance. The first I heard of the remark was this morning, when Ann Louise Gilligan gave out about it on the radio, claiming that the Pope was denying her "humanity." I had heard nothing about it before then. I trawled through various Catholic news agencies on the internet, but was unable to find a reference to the Pope's remark. The only mention of it on the web that I could find were reports that various homosexual groups had "slammed" it. If the media hadn't kicked up a fuss, virtually no one would have heard of it at all. My question is: if the homosexual lobby was genuinely fearful that the Pope's words could lead to violence against them, would they be publicising those words so dilligently? Or is their goal simply to have another dig at the Pope and portray him as a befuddled reactionary?

Monday, December 22, 2008

With all this talk of the credit crunch, some people still haven't lost sight of their priorities

The Irish Daily Mail of 22 December reports on page 2 that Joe Biden has warned that the US economy is in serious danger of "tanking".

Another report on the same page carries the headline: "Obama's inauguration set to draw millions and cost taxpayer €21m".

Friday, December 19, 2008

Surprise! Israel signs a truce and then doesn't abide by its terms

... thus provoking Hamas to end the truce, as Israelis must have known would happen, and fire rockets into Israel.

And while Catholic neocons in the west continue to swoon over Israel and pledge eternal fidelity to her, Israel shows characteristic gentleness and respect for Catholicism by barring priests from entering the Gaza strip, ensuring that Palestinian Catholics blocaded in there have no one to say Mass for them.

Don't expect to read about that in First Things.

End the blocade.

Fotterel rambles confusedly about homosexuality in Ireland

he makes the odd claim that in Ireland there is a "public climate of fear-mongering, hate crimes and and intolerance" towards homosexuality. Rrright. I suppose that's why he is able to pontificate about the matter in the country's most respectable newspaper. And it must be why Rocco Buttiglione was not allowed become EU Justice Commissoner.

There is a curious ambivilence about his article. He claims the homosexual community is "full of joy", yet a bitter, aggrieved tone pervades the entire piece. He complains that the topic of homosexuality was discussed on Questions and Answers by an all-heterosexual panel, apparently seeing this as evidence of institutional homophobia (in RTE no less!). Then he triumphantly stresses just how accepted homosexuals have become in Irish Society, with a homosexual choir even being allowed sing in St Anne's Church on Dawson Street. He can't seem to make up his mind whether he and his fellow homosexuals are tolerated as equals or not.

The answer is that they are and they aren't. They are fully accepted, indeed celebrated, by liberal sections of the media, liberal Protestant clergy and people who have simply been brought up to tolerate them. But the rest of the the western world has not been deluded into seeing homosexuality as either normal or healthy. Hence Proposition 8, and the fact that homosexuals don't make up a significant enough portion of the population to be on the panel of Questions and Answers every time a discussion of their rights comes up.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Young blogger glimpses famous person in crowded café

I saw Bill Cullen at Easons today. (For foreign readers, an extremely wealthy businessman who recently featured on a TV show called The Apprentice.) It was upstairs in the café, he was just finishing a meal of some sort and talking to a young companion. Of course I tried to stare without giving the impression of staring at all.

It's funny how television makes people much more immediate, more accessible to your mind. Bill Cullen's book Penny Apples came out a good five years ago and his second book came out soon after. I saw his picture on the cover of those books and saw articles about him in the paper. I remember reading a long interview with him in the Daily Telegraph. But I would never in a million years have recognised him in a café, the way I did today, if it hadn't been for that TV show. He would have just looked like any other middle-aged man in a suit. (Okay, the improbably black hair might have caught my attention, but nothing else!) Even though I only saw a couple of episodes of The Apprentice, the recognition was instant.

I wonder what other famous people I've unknowlingly passed in the street, simply because I haven't seen them on TV ...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

extremists and EXTREMISTS

But before I go, a sombre tale from the aforementioned continent of Europe. A couple of days ago, Alois Mannichl, chief of police in Passau, Bavaria, was stabbed on the street and seriously wounded. No one has yet been charged. But his assailant allegedly had a shaved head and shouted "Left-wing s***-cop!" before stabbing him.

Immediately there was an outcry. The German tabloid Bild talks openly of a "Nazi attack", as if the motive were as clear as day. Social Democrat member of parliament Sebastian Edarthy called extra-severe sentences for violence with a "right-wing extremist background", i.e. for punishing people for their opinions as well as their acts. Green parliamentary leader Voelker Beck wants even more taxpayer's money to be channelled into anti-rightist propaganda in schools and communities, the so-called Kampf gegen Rechts. Meanwhile, the leader of the local quasi-Nazis points out that none of their number in Passau matches the description of the assailant, and promises to help the investigation in any way it can.

Now switch to Paris. Yesterday five sticks of dynamite were found in a large department store, the Printemps Haussmann. A hitherto unknown group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front claims responsibility, saying its goal is to have the French out of Afghanistan by March 2009. Most people presumed they were Islamists. However, the message contains no reference to Islam, but does contain a reference to "les grands magasins capitalistes". Sinces les grands magasins is a term only used within Paris to designate the Printemps, and capitaliste obviously a favourite word of the far left, Radio France Internationale says the evidence points to "une cause d'extrème gauche".

So here are two crimes within two days - one possibly carried out by a lone adherant of the extreme right, and the other very likely a concerted effort of the extreme left. But which will cause the bigger uproar? Which will have more politicians fretting about making more funds available to combat dangerous, anti-democratic tendencies? Which type of extemism, left or right, is more widespread, more unscrupulous, immune to media criticism, more dangerous? No prizes for guessing!

Oh thank you, European Parliament!

You're so kind and considerate! How would we ever manage without you?

One question: if the EU is taking measures to "protect" our metric system, who was threatening it?

I must admit that after three years of living on the continent, I am more inclined to think in terms of kilometres than miles. But otherwise it's all pounds, feet and inches; a childhood addiction to watching wrestling on television saw to that! Funny how Hulk Hogan's weight was always billed as being 303 lbs over a period of several years, apparently never changing at all ...

Anyway, I'm off for a pint.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Your brain IS better than a computer

If anyone was looking for material in English on the late Claude Olievenstein, on whom I blogged yesterday, you might have come accross this unintentionally hilarious piece on a site called speedylook. Really, instead of using a computerised translator, could they not have got themselves some English lessons? There are qualified teachers out there - Party Soldier being one - who would be glad to help!

I actually found it rather uplifting. Just when you think computers have got so advanced they're poised to take over the world, something like this shows how primitive and in need of improvement they can be.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Claude Olievenstein, fashionable 70's drugs reformer, has died

Radio France Internationale paid warm tribute to the man who founded the Marmothan clinic in Paris, believed in "listening" to drug users instead of punishing them, advocated the open sale of syringes in the 1980's (ostensibly to prevent the spread of AIDS) and liked to quote Foucault in his articles. The site admits that in the early days Olievenstein's ideas incurred "l'hostilité de la majeure partie de la communauté scientifique", but rejoices that "[a]ujourd'hui, sa pensée libérale imprègne encore la manière de prendre en charge les toxicomanes."

If what you've just read makes you feel sick, Peter Hitchens' recent thoughts on drugs will remind you that there are still some sane people out there.

The Christian Solidarity Party, incidentally, has a zero-tolerance policy on drugs. This is stated in the manifesto of 1997. We believe that crime is crime and should be punished. Constantly treating wrongdoers as victims - whether we're talking about disruptive boys in primary school or violent killers - is morally irresponsible and leads to a culture where criminals think they can act with impunity, and the rest of society is powerless to do or say anything against it.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Politicians show characteristic respect for citizens

Helped, of course, by their equally respectful friends in the media.

I know of no-one who thought the Lisbon Treaty would force Irish soldiers to fight in an EU army. I know of no No campaigner who claimed it would. I know of no leaflet, poster or letter to the editor from the No camp which made that claim.

What opponents do claim is that it would hasten the creation of a European army whose missions Ireland would have to morally and financially support, even if we weren't actually sending soldiers to fight in it.

But I actually think it's encouraging that the europhiles are scurrying around gathering up all the wrong explanations for Ireland's No to Lisbon. It means they don't want to face up to the true reasons. "The Irish people didn't understand the Treaty!" they splutter. "They thought their sons and brothers would be conscripted off to Afghanistan! They thought they'd be forced to introduce abortion on demand! It was just a protest vote! They only wanted to punish the government!" And so on. They don't want to face up to the real reason, which is that we Irish think the "European project" has gone far enough and we don't want to give any more of our national sovereignty away.

And as for people not understanding the Treaty - do you think that was the fault of the citizens, or of men like this? I don't deny that I met some people who said they were voting No simply because they didn't understand the thing. But there's no shame in not understanding it, since the Treaty was deliberately intended to be incomprehensible. M Giscard d'Estaing says it was, and M Giscard d'Estaing probably knows more about the Lisbon Treaty than anyone. Voting No to a treaty you can't understand seems much more sensible to me than voting Yes to a treaty you can't understand.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Daniel Hannan asks the question of the week

Read it here.

The same question, of course, could be asked about Sarko, Merkel & Co.

Friday, December 12, 2008

More fine objective reporting from a national newspaper

can be found here.

Question: how often do you see an establishment politician's office, whether in Brussels, Strasbourg or Dublin, referred to as "plush" in a national broadsheet? Rarely, if ever. Well, I was in a government minister's office once - a left-wing Labour minister, as it happens - and I can tell you, to call it "plush" would have been understating it somewhat.

And poor Enda, with his "obviously maybe he lacks the courage". I think Enda should obviously obviously stop embarrassing himself and the upstanding but confused people who vote for his party and pack himself off to Mayo, or maybe the continent, seeing as he likes it so much.

Seriously, though, the announcement by Libertas can only be good news. At present only two of the 13 MEP's from the 26 counties could be described as broadly "eurosceptic". And yet a majority of Irish citizens said no to Lisbon. If Ganly and one or two other Libertas candidates were to be elected next May, it would even out the picture somewhat. There are rumours that the very able Caroline Simons might run in Dublin. I know many people who would welcome that.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Two peas in a pod

Le Figaro of 10 December reports that Lisbon architect Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and 1968 veteran Daniel Cohn-Bendit had a debate the other evening on Europe before some students in Paris. Quite how two men who agree with each other on "Europe" can have a debate about it I don't know. To be sure, they managed to find some things to disagree on so their audience wouldn't get bored, like nuclear power and Turkish membership of the EU, but otherwise Europe was the "objet d'une forte volonté commune". The old student radical and the even older "conservative" showed themselves in their true colours as fanatical europhiles both. Le Figaro, misty-eyed with emotion, enthused that "ces deux hommes que tout sépare ont un destin européen commun."

But what really made me reach for the basin was Giscard d'Estaing's take on why the referendum on the EU consititution was defeated in France. Not because the French people were, like, you know, against the EU constitution. No, it was just because Chirac went about the campaign in the wrong manner. "Les Francais ont dit non à la campagne, ils n'ont pas dit non à l'Europe." Note a.) the incredible arrogance of a eurocrat who either can't believe or doesn't care that his countrymen don't support him in his insane project, and b.) referring to the failed constitution as "Europe", as if anyone who didn't support a long-winded and bureaucratic treaty was somehow betraying the heritage of this continent.

With politicians as obtuse and fanatical as that running the show in Brussels, is it any wonder they're demanding that we Irish vote again?

Monday, December 8, 2008

CSP tells it like it is on Lisbon

Here is the text of the party's submission to the Sub-Committee on Ireland's Future in the European Union:


The general view expressed by both politicians and the media is that Ireland will lose its influence in the European corridors of power, if, as a result of our Lisbon vote, we alone will be the cause of that Treaty not being implemented. Of course, that position may not actually arise because the Czech Republic and Poland have not yet decided on the issue. Indeed the matter is before the courts in the Czech Republic. So there is no certainty that Ireland alone will reject the Treaty. If, however, such a position emerges the Christian Solidarity Party does not forsee that significant difficulties will arise for Ireland. There may be an initial negative response from some European politicians and administrators. Nevertheless, this party is of the view that their reaction will quickly change as it becomes apparent that public opinion in many countries supports the Irish position. In this regard we would specifically point to the United Kingdom which is our major trading partner. The government there has renaged on its election promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. It seems obvious that their reason for so doing is the certainty that a UK referendum would result in the Treaty being rejected.

2. Such a result would also arise in other European countries if they were to hold referenda on the Treaty. Ireland should take advantage of this position by leading the "No" vote and thereby strengthen its status within the European Union. Consequently, the Christian Solidarity Party would strongly oppose any re-run of the Treaty referendum. A outlined above, there is no specific need to seek a reversal of the outcome of the Lisbon vote. More importantly, it is essential to ensure that future referenda do not become meaningless through re-running them until such time as the "official" line is supported.

3. Ireland, so far as is possible, must make certain through its representation on the board of the Euro Bank that currency policy does not operate in a fashion detrimental to the particular needs of the Irish economy. Ireland must protect its right to determine its own tax rates, a right which is vital to our ability to attract foreign investment and development to this country.

4. In relation to social policy, defence and foreign affairs, the Christian Solidarity Party opposes the concept that these matters can be determined by Brussels and imposed on Ireland against the wishes of its people. These policy areas must remain under the control of our own legislature. We are certain that the vast majority of the Irish people believe that the European Union should have no say in relation to our laws on matters such as abortion, family and foreign affairs.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Overheard ... in Dundrum

A café at the Dundrum Town Centre. Two au pairs are talking. Well, one of them is talking, with a German accent, while the other, who looks vaguely Slavic, listens in sympathetic silence. The German is talking about relationship problems. Party Soldier, who is sitting at the next table, cannot help overhearing.

"It's a very hard situation," the girl says, "I don't know what happens when I'm coming home."

Party Soldier bristles a little at this. What are they teaching them at schools these days? He would like to correct her:

"Excuse me, it's future tense."

"What?"

"You say I don't know what will happen when I go home, not I don't know what happens when I'm coming home. It's the future simple tense. Why are you using the present tense to talk about the future?"

"Oh, okay - but isn't when I'm coming home in the present tense?"

"Well, yes, but that's different."

"Why?"

"Because when always takes the present, even when referring to the future ... and anyway, it's when I come, not when I'm coming.

"Why?"

"Because the continuous only refers to something going on over a period of time, and your coming home is a single action. You could say when we're shopping tomorrow, but it's when I come home."

"But it takes a long period of time, several hours. Longer than shopping."

"Look, never mind. And anyway it's when I go home, not when I come.

"Why?"

"Because - because it just is, all right?"

Who would have thought that so much tedious grammatical correction could be gleaned from such a short sentence?

I hope it works out for her anyway.

Now why is that in the present tense ...

Friday, December 5, 2008

"But that's populism!"

If anyone does think that calling on politicians to cut down on their own expenses before foisting cutbacks on the rest of the country is simplistic and populist, the account of the wining and dining Brian Cowen is currently carrying on with various European heads of government should make them wonder if our leaders really are living within their means. The Taoiseach has just been to Berlin, where he had dinner with Angela Merkel and also met Jean-Claude "I just discard my country's consititution when its provisions don't suit me" Juncker. According to The Irish Independent of 4 December, Mr Cowen "is meeting with European heavy hitters in a three-day tour of European capitals ahead of next week's EU summit, where he will set out his approach to solving the Lisbon Treaty crisis ." This will include meetings with Gordon Brown in London and with Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace.

Hasn't he had the opportunity to "set out his approach" to Lisbon at any of his many tete-à-tetes with EU leaders before now? And notice the use of the word "crisis". The only crisis here, Taoiseach, is that unemployment in Ireland is skyrocketing while you're jetting around Europe at the taxpayer's expense. But apparently more of these vitally important conferences are to follow; the Independent notes that "[t]he meetings are part of a series of consultations with EU leaders to discuss plans to deal with the Lisbon impasse."

And what profound thoughts are being exchanged at these meetings? Frau Merkel told journalists "I have every confidence that the Irish Government is doing everything it can to move forward the process ... I think what is needed is mutual respect and understanding of the hopes and wishes and demands."

If he just went to Berlin to exchange vapid platitudes like this, Mr Cowen would have done better to stay at home.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Leaflets on Sunday

Paul and I hope to hand out leaflets on Sunday outside St. Kevin's Church, Dublin, after the 10:30 traditional Latin Mass. The leaflets are basically about two things: introducing our Party, making sure that people are aware of us and can contact us if they wish, and also about our proposals for government cutbacks. We are of the opinion that before targeting schools and the elderly, government ministers should be aiming to reduce their own perks and salaries. I can hear "Populism", that favourite word the liberal elites use to describe things that despite their best efforts are popular, being muttered already ...

We've optimistically printed a rather high number of leaflets, but I'll see to it that any that don't get handed out outside St. Kevin's will be handed out somewhere.

Why we're here

The purpose of this blog is two-fold: first, to give an outlet to my random thoughts, hopes, fears and (more often, I fear) gripes so that my family and friends don't have to put up with them; and secondly, to give some kind of public face to the Christian Solidarity Party, of which I am a proud and paid-up member. It is not an official CSP website, and any views expressed on it are entirely my own, and not to be confused with those of the party. But I do hope that it will help people to keep up to date on party news, given that our official website is down at the moment. If you've heard of the Christian Solidarity Party and have wondered how a real live CSP member thinks, talks and blogs, you need look no further!