Comments on: Irish president lambastes right wing US radio DJ over the politics of fear

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:11:00 +0000

a) Still in the Senate?

b) Elected to Congress and having their knees replaced by artificial ones, courtesy of the taxpayers.
‘Cuz of that constant election finance campaigning does take its toll…

c) Smoke-free for 12 years, 3 months, thirteen days, and four-and-a-half hours, and “I don’t miss the cigarettes one bit.”

Which is it, man?

By: EH

EH — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:31:00 +0000

Too bad the Democrats are fundamentally incapable of kicking them when they’re down.

By: blisschick

blisschick — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:02:00 +0000

Insurance companies are already calling all of the shots. They’re already the gatekeepers and the middlemen, and they’ve bought off the politicians, so they’re still getting benefits. Obamacare isn’t perfect, but it is a force to be reckoned with. The health care companies can’t run the entire game now.

As far as free health care goes, great idea! So who’s going to pay for that? The government — our government — is the only entity powerful enough to be able to run a non-profit health care system. Will it be imperfect? Yes. But it won’t be paying CEOS multiple hundreds of dollars in salaries and bonuses while jacking health care premiums. And We the People will have the ability to have a say in the system.

By: Allan Hughes

Allan Hughes — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:41:00 +0000

Yeeeooooohhh!

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 05:43:00 +0000

Libertarians were the biggest boosters of the neoliberal banker agenda in Ireland. They’ve since been desperately trying to scrub all their “Celtic Tiger” think tank pieces of the internet..

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 05:38:00 +0000

Democrats would turn their back on somebody speaking that kind of truth to power in an unapologetic way.

By: tuigim

tuigim — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:29:00 +0000

For those who want to learn the language:
http://ancroiait.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/learn-irish-lesson-1/
Ireland (Éire or Éireann) is named after the Goddess Éirú.
Right now I’m reading An Hobad (The Hobbit) in Irish and it honestly sound better than the English language version.

What really is a British inheritance is feeling awkward when people use words in Irish. That’s a shame.
Love my language.
Love my president.
Awesome, Micheal D!

By: tuigim

tuigim — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Ara, call it Ireland. Lots of countries are republics.
People from the Czech republic simply call their country Czech. Our country is Ireland.
Oh and Michael D. Higgins rocks!

By: tuigim

tuigim — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Ah Steve, be proud of your language. I know we were taught it was inferior by the British but we can hold our heads up now.
Labhair í agus mairfidh sí.
Speak it and it will survive.
Throw off yer inhibitions for the sake of your culture.
Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.
A country without a language is a country without a soul.
Michael D Higgins go deo (forever)!

By: tuigim

tuigim — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:18:00 +0000

I see no border. It’s all one country to me.

By: tuigim

tuigim — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:15:00 +0000

It doesn’t make me cringe at all. I love our language and am glad when people throw in a word or two of it in a sentence.
Maith agat = thank you.
The Goddess Éirú would be proud ♥

By: tuigim

tuigim — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:13:00 +0000

Stephen Colbert?

By: Sasha@librtee

Sasha@librtee — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:11:00 +0000

If only this guy had been in office when Ireland sold their future off to these shitball bankers :(

As a libertarian, I’m more inclined to support an anti-war liberal than a pro-war conservative, because war is really really expensive and really really important.

By: GeauxGhoti

GeauxGhoti — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 07:53:00 +0000

All I can say is… I love that man!

By: ashabot

ashabot — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 02:01:00 +0000

Wonderful! Wonderful!Wonderful! I am loving Michael D Higgins, Poet President of Sanity.

By: Theranthrope

Theranthrope — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The proper term for that is: the "Black and white" logical fallacy, which goes something like; "If one side says 'black' and if the opposing side says 'white' the truth must be some shade of 'grey'" which is quite the trick ...in that, it take the position of 'fairness' while being unfair, due to either intellectual laziness or outright dishonesty ("Fair and Balanced™"). It's a favorite tool of the propagandist because they can use their already unclean hands to smear the opposition.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:42:00 +0000

Yeah, the thin herd would consist of smug Canadians and Europeans.

/Wankers Whipping up Fear is going to be my next punk band’s name.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:41:00 +0000

Jeepers, retepslluerb, see for yourself:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_compared#International_comparisons

Cost is kinda middle-of-the-pack. Unless you include the USA in the pack, then all the rest are at the low end.

Interesting numbers from the link: the number of physicians per 1,000 people.

By: rhodian

rhodian — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 09:04:00 +0000

Note the wording in the preamble to the English version of the Constitution of Ireland
( http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Youth_Zone/About_the_Constitution,_Flag,_Anthem_Harp/Constitution_of_Ireland_March_2012.pdf and passim)

CONSTITUTION OF IRELAND In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,We, the people of Éire,Humbly acknowledging all …

By: rhodian

rhodian — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 08:46:00 +0000

I know why it’s relevant; I was pointing out that this, wherever else Cory writes, is not the Guardian.
From the Guardian style guide http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/e:
Eire
no: say Republic of Ireland or Irish Republic

Obviously, though, they say Ireland when they mean Ireland, but we were talking about the use of Éire.

I fully understand your point, Hal, and you’re not wrong; I just don’t think it’s nice to accuse Cory, who was also not wrong (and who is now British) of a “britishism” (which is a loaded term in the context of Ireland) for using a term which I and many other Irish people would take no offence at in any way. I welcome it; I’d like to see more Irish being used everywhere. If the best people can do is drop the odd word into English sentences then bring it on.

By: motherwarrior

motherwarrior — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 07:02:00 +0000

I saw this yesterday, and I did not know how to get it on Boing Boing. I am so thrilled it is here.I love the Irish, I love this guy and I only wish I were one tenth as eloquent. I work with the Irish everyday, and they know our politics better than we know our politics. This guy is a poet. The head line read the day after he was elected “Activist, Poet elected President of Ireland.”

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:51:00 +0000

Germany doesn’t have a single-payer, tax-funded system, though. It is, however one of the most expensive ones, iirc.

By: jimh

jimh — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 04:35:00 +0000

Actually single payer was always off the table. The insurance industry had over 3,000 lobbyists working on that bill. It was never going to be an option.

By: EH

EH — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:52:00 +0000

There’s always going to be a middleman! Corruption is a human failing and as such will show up anywhere, including healthcare industry workers. No part of your position deals with this fact.

By: Hal

Hal — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:07:00 +0000

Relevant because Cory frequently writes a column for the Guardian?
Their style is to use Ireland and Irish Republic. Sometimes a form is required to distinguish between the state and the island and “Irish Republic” seems like a reasonable compromise that conforms to usage in Ireland. iirc “Republic of Ireland” is a FIFA coinage.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:01:00 +0000

Seriously. That guy was seeing blue diamonds swirling around his head.

That’s what we need in the Democratic party– someone who fight the ignoramuses and call them on their bullshit.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:00:00 +0000

You’re talking single payer? It’s not “free.” We pay for it, through our tax dollars. (Just like all those shudder European countries do. That’s how they’re all the top 10 health care countries and we’re, what, #17 ?

The ironic thing is, they had to use budget reconciliation in the senate to pass it anyways (51 votes rather than 67). So we could’ve had single payer, theoretically.

Altho, if you stir up the health care industry’s wrath, perhaps they blast it with hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads and it get cancelled anyway.

By: Finnagain

Finnagain — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:41:00 +0000

They were probably poor anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

By: Finnagain

Finnagain — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:39:00 +0000

Well, too bad. Because all such comments have mysteriously vanished from known existence. Or maybe it is just that any comment like that was immediately discarded as ‘idealistic’, ‘unrealistic’ and ‘socialist’ by our “leaders”. Good thing we had Max Baucus on our team calling the shots, right?

Grrr. Don’t even get me started. Oh, you already did.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:32:00 +0000

Yeah, that.