01.24.05
Posted in Sunday Times Columns at 4:22 pm by
Defrosting
So I lied. One more post. Have been inspired by the immensely satisfying experiencing of defrosting the icebox on Sunday. I know that Sundays are supposed to be days without unncessary work and that defrosting should be a passive experience, but driven by nesting hormones and inches of ice which threatened to crack the door, I felt compelled to attack. I plugged the fridge out on Saturday night, packing the depleted food supplies into a basin. Laid out various water collection devices from newspapers and floor cloths to strategically placed trays. By Sunday lunchtime I had collected a lot of water and yet there were frustrating plates of ice coated underneath and at the sides of the compartment. At the rate I was going the fridge would be sitting unused for 3 days and the weekly shop had to be done. Sharp implements and hot water, expressly forbidden by the manufacturers were called for. After an hour of frenzied attack which amazingly seems not to have damaged the appliance I had a sink full of plates of ice. Fortunately they hadn’t melted by the time husband and child returned from quality afternoon together so I could display my achievement. Strangely my pride didn’t earn the plaudits I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I felt very capable and in charge of my life. If only everything else in life was so simple.
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01.21.05
Posted in Feminism at 11:15 am by
I’m taking maternity leave from blog duties from today. The world is a place to be avoided at all costs for the next few weeks as it is simply a source of disturbance to my delicate pysche. Listening to Bush prattle on about his so-called freedom while watching pictures of screaming Iraqi children who’ve just witnessed their parents being shot by liberating US soldiers is just too much. The tragic outcome of the Robert Holohan case is also upsetting. Instead of the hysterical stranger predator paedophile story pedalled by an irresponsible press, we get a young man who got accidentally involved in a nightmare. Whatever incident took place (who knows? maybe Robert swerved out in front of his car, gave him a fright, he went to put him in the car to take him home to reprimand him to his parents and it all went wrong??) the insistence by the meeja that a paedophile was responsible would clearly have dissuaded him from coming forward. This of course draws us back to the Rachel O’Reilly case where it looks as if that will remain unsolved. Either our chief suspect is innocent or clever: a most unsatisfactory outcome for all concerned.
Anyway, I will focus on matters domestic. Nesting continues at an intense level. An entirely unnecessary visit to Brown Thomas was made last week and an unaffordable investment made in the best Egyptian cotton bed linen. Every time I feel a twinge I clean something (a door, the cooker filter, the kettle, something not mission critical but the cleanliness of which suddenly appears vital). I’m due on Thursday (27th) but suspect I will go over. The midwife has recommended a concoction of castor oil, vodka and orange juice should this transpire. The V&O is on site but I’ll have to source the castor oil.
Full report will appear in due course.
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01.11.05
Posted in Feminism at 8:38 pm by
Sooner or later I knew someone would ask me this. I thought it might take place at some time in the future when I was running for political office and my answer would make or break me. Still, sitting here, creating life, is as good as time as any to contemplate the issue.
In short. No. I don’t think there is a God or one all powerful being or ghosts or angels or anything else. I fully confess that due to training, as soon as anything goes wrong I do say pleasegodpleasegodpleasegod don’t let that bad thing happen. However I know that this is a prayer onto which a form of words has been attached.
However, and perhaps this is where I might differ from most who say they believe in God but hate religion. I do believe in mass religion (or religion for the masses). I believe in ceremony and sacraments at crucial stages in our lives. I think christenings and marriages and funerals are essential. I will willingly support our local church because the fact remains, that when someone dies, we want prayers said over the body. And it’s not enough that these prayers are just good wishes or intentions. Having known rituals performed at stressful times is good for the living (if useless to the dead). Religion provides the simple infrastructure for death – churches and graveyards – provided locally and cheaply. And when my child is born I want it baptised into something and if being made a Catholic gives it a label well then let’s call that label a sense of identity which gives him or her a place in the world. Instead of being a nothing.
In addition I believe since the state can and should only legislate for so much, religion is essential to teach and encourage personal morality. Without someone to impose (or impart if you like) values as opposed to civil law, I think we are just one step from Lord of the Flies and we need some force to make us behave in a manner which promotes peace in society. I don’t deny for a second the great evil perpetuated by religion (from war to making certain sinners into outcasts) but the way forward is to encourage loving religions not angry religions.
Furthermore I believe that certain people have great spirituality and can be called holy or rabbi or guru or whatever you want. I put the spirituality but others might call it charisma or presence. Whatever you call it, its a positive energy that others can feel and respond to. If that ‘holiness’ can be harnessed and more people are encouraged to aspire to saintliness/goodness then that’s a great thing. For example in my brief encounters with Buddhism (which doesn’t have a God but possesses amazing spirituality) I have really seen how teaching a way of life or attitude can have a ripple effect and turn into a ‘do onto others as you would have them do onto you’ philosophy. In other words, religion can have an incredibly positive effect on both a global and individual level. And if to facilitate it, we call the centrepiece of religion, God, then let God exist.
In conclusion, my mother is a reader of the death announcements in the papers. As she observes, even tho’ a lot of people say they don’t believe in God – 99% of the announcements include details of the funeral service which takes place in a church. So I say, send your prayers out whomever you want – your family, your dead friends, God. But cough up a few quid so there’s someone there to bury you when you die.
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01.10.05
Posted in Feminism at 10:01 am by
John Waters addresses this in his column today. Unusually for John he is not too hysterical and thus, his ability to write and analyse comes through. He concludes as follows:
“This is a big subject – the biggest there is – and I suspect that, now the culture of dissociation has begun to dissolve, the journalistic life of this “story” is only just beginning. To further this all-important investigation, I would like to recommend to both Vincent and Patsy a splendid book, extraordinarily germane to this matter and yet, it seems, unknown to anyone I have encountered commenting on it. When Bad Things Happen To Good People was written 24 years ago by an American rabbi, Harold S. Kushner, in an attempt to reconcile his faith with the death of his son, who had died aged 14 of progeria, a rapid ageing syndrome. The book addresses issues raised in the Book of Job about the irreconcilability of conventional ideas that God is, at once, all-powerful and just. Kushner’s conclusion is startlingly simple, yet rational: God is all-loving but not all-powerful. Reduced, the book’s analysis is that the world remains incomplete and imperfect, and no longer within the scope of its Creator. The reason we are here is to aid God’s work of completion. God helps us in certain ways, but He neither causes things to happen nor is able to prevent them. The bad things that happen are neither punishments nor tests – simply events, and God is entirely innocent.”
Isn’t this the same conclusion which Philip Pullman draws in His Dark Materials (different genre obviously but nevertheless). God was just the first angel (being), not the most superior angel and he’s feeble and he dies.
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01.07.05
Posted in Domestic/Relationships at 7:33 pm by
Orde’s statement today was not only predictable in laying blame with the IRA but also in admitting the true amount of cash nicked. As I suspected the figure was closer to €30m rather than the €22m originally revealed. €26m +. I am not sure how effective the withdrawal of Northern Bank currency will be in an attempt to thwart the thieves. How can you withdraw it? Does every individual with Northern Bank notes have to show up with them at a branch? Will have to see the detail of this.
But my old friend McDowell is having a ball. As regular readers are well aware I despise this fascist creep but on at least one occasion per season I find myself in agreement with him. By not automatically taking a contrary position to him on every issue, I think this displays reasonableness* on my part. (* I had to check that was actually a word: believe it or not, it is.)
Turning the IRA into a respectable OD (ordinary decent) criminal gang doesn’t cut it with me. As long as Sinn Fein have a threat of violence behind them in the form on an armed gang, be their aims political or monetary, then they are not legitimate members of a democratic system. And I don’t care about their mandate. Their mandate is strong because people believe:
1. They had and continue to have the capability to persuade the IRA to give up terrorism because they are intrinsically linked: if they weren’t, from whence would their influence derive?
2. Due to this intrinsic link, some people are attracted to the vigilante powers of IRA/Sinn Fein. This was articulated very clearly on call-in radio programmes after the local elections. Callers freely admitted they voted Sinn Fein because their people kept manners on local creeps.
3. In the face of the collapse of the SDLP ( the cause of which I will return to a later date), Sinn Fein is an articulate voice for anti-unionism in the North. I deliberately hesitate from using the term nationalist as I see that as a more respectable and honourable description. I’m a nationalist and puke at the thought that Sinn Fein might speak for me.
So I reserve the right to be snobby about Sinn Fein until they abandon the ‘weasel words’, as McDowell said, and come straight out and condemn all criminal activity.
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01.06.05
Posted in Sunday Times Columns at 9:29 pm by
Observation of the day which has danger of seeming trite and yet remains compelling:
I can do nothing about life and death. The child will be born ok or not and there’s very little I can do about it. I have to leave the room when the TV shows the tsunami victims now. It’s too upsetting and knowing more about it isn’t going to change anything.
But I can make the trek back to the bathroom supply shop so I can swap the handbasin taps so they match the bath taps. I could say: well, look at all those dead people and the live miserable ones – it hardly matters if the taps don’t match. But I can do something about the taps and nothing about the misery of others. So I might as well do it. Thus I can maintain an illusion of control over my life and sleep easier at night. Does this make me a bad person?
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01.02.05
Posted in Domestic/Relationships at 9:40 pm by
Tee hee. Thanks to PO’Neill for this link.
Also, congratulations to the robbers of the Northern Bank. Although the cops and bank officials would have us believe that most of the “upwards of 22million” (which to me says probably €30m) is unspendable as its traceable, I refuse to believe that such a genius crime would have been committed unless they had a plan for the cash. If they are in any doubt I think they should donate loads of it to the Asia disaster appeal. Then dare the Northern bank not to honour the notes. After all, they’ve written it off anyway, so why not give it the victims of the wave?
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Posted in Sunday Times Columns at 9:15 pm by
Have received some complaints regarding the blog – principally related to the devotion to topics such as knickers. But then as one commentator has suggested: “you are the Sunday Independent of blogs; politics and knickers on one page”. Maybe I should give Aengus a call. To appeal to him I suppose I’d have to include a photograph of myself since he likes to put his own photo, and those of his journos, liberally throughout the paper.
In any event, it is my blog and I can write anything I want on it. Prepare yourself for further updates on preparation for labour. Due date is 27th of January. The midwife visited this morning and the good news is that the head is engaged but the bad news is that the baby is posterior. This means that its spine is against my spine (limbs punching the tummy). For ease of exit it should be the other way round. The cure is to crawl around on all fours for the next few weeks in the hope of encouraging Jr. to turn around.
In the world outside my womb the Indian Ocean disaster is totally depressing and I have supported the Irish Red Cross Appeal. However I was irritated to see that local do-gooders have placed boxes for non-perishable items at nearby supermarkets with a note on the box explaining how brilliant they are and that they were motivated ‘to do something’ because they are wonderful people. The Red Cross has specifically asked people not to donate anything except money as supplies are available locally and do not need expensive transportation. I am tempted to call the chief do-gooder and point this out but no doubt they’d get all snotty. Also tempted to call a radio station to complain but I’m trying to make it a general policy not to phone radio stations. I maybe a housewife now, but there are limits.
I notice that Bush finally and graciously interrupted his holiday to look as if he cares about Muslims and poor people who live in places that have no oil. Too late. The Financial Times noted some days ago that despite the enormity of the disaster, the international financial markets were unaffected since those areas and people decimated by the waves are amongst the poorest in the world and are economically irrelevant. However,it did show some sense to send Jeb with Powell to Banda Aceh since he used to looking at weather induced devastation in Florida.
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