Slugger O'Toole

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Neil has commented 1,209 times (12 in the last month).

1. Comment on Willie Flags Up An Interesting Question
   on 22 May 2012 at 5:30 pm

   will i get away with layin in to someone on slugger, with the same venom that many have on this thread?

   If in doubt just search ‘Gerry Adams’ or ‘Martin McG’ for numerous examples of personal, vitriolic attacks and unproven assertions presented as fact. References to the Northern Bank spring to mind. Ya know when the cops said ‘it was themmuns’ then the money appeared in a popular-with-peelers golf club, and for which no one is in prison. Good job we don’t have corrupt peelers here, or questions would be asked! Or Gerry’s much referenced membership which, like it or not, has yet to be proven.

   Frazer is a well known Orangeman who has said loyalist paramilitaries “should never have been locked up.”

   Though in light of that statement you can perhaps understand the lack of grace afforded Frazer by some. Some of us dislike it when people suggest that the murderers of our loved ones should have been released without charge. I’m sure Willie would have as much time for any of us that would say IRA men should ‘never have been locked up’.

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2. Comment on Hasten slowly – though no tangible signs that the Anglican supertanker is turning
   on 14 May 2012 at 6:01 pm

   Not gay related btw just a bit kinky.

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3. Comment on Hasten slowly – though no tangible signs that the Anglican supertanker is turning
   on 14 May 2012 at 6:00 pm

   Rory,

   some good advice here:

   http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/search=Deuteronomy+25&version=NIV

   If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

   Among other things…

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4. Comment on How would you measure a Belfast Buzz?
   on 11 May 2012 at 1:57 pm

   I would argue that there is no question that Belfast is going in the right direction

   Royal Avenue’s growing collection of empty shops tells a different tale, with business owners complaining that their rates bill is now in excess of their rent one could say the city is heading backwards, fast, in no small part thanks to poor management and investing silly money in daft projects.

   We’ll see how that Titanic thing goes, I can see they’re doing a lot of conferences but that’s at the expense of other City Council centres such as the Waterfront. Sure Cameron/Di Caprio fans will come for a while but I suspect they’re not a suitable basis for a business plan.

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5. Comment on “are you serious?” – redux
   on 7 May 2012 at 1:09 pm

   Think you’re giving too much weight to what is probably a case of finding something to say every week. Union flags are to be found in Asda just up the road (on T shirts), with no bi-lingual signage but they just don’t sell too well up there. Wait til the olympics gets underway, there’ll be Union Jack based everything from tins of coke to bags of crisps and the rest and I for one will exercise my protest via my consumer right not to buy shit I don’t want.

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6. Comment on Cardinal Brady should go – in charity
   on 4 May 2012 at 1:34 pm

   To be as generous to Brady as I can be, he may not be culpable under canon law, and he may have fulfilled his obligations as such. But as a human being he’s fallen short. I don’t see how my reaction as a father should be any different now than it would have been in 75. It’s a natural instinct and an obligation as a decent person (and a Christian of any hue) to protect any child.

   I don’t doubt he’s a good guy with good intentions, but for the good of the church, which has been decimated by people of his generation, of his career and to a certain extent under his watch, he should resign. As a human and a citizen he should reflect not on his obligations under canon law, but his obligations as a Christian.

   If you cast this sorry affair as a version of the good Samaritan, Brady passed on by on the other side. Whatsoever you do onto the least of my brothers you do onto me. There are 100 applicable quotes in that book which should cause Brady some discomfort.

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7. Comment on Robocop, Monkeyman & Boris V Streaker Sammy, Mr Leapfrog & Niall, decision time?
   on 2 May 2012 at 9:21 pm

   Belfast people are quirky. May McFetridge would walk it.

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8. Comment on Calls for withdrawal of NIO may be good for coverage, but…
   on 1 May 2012 at 6:34 pm

   He is also the person who gets to decide whether the Northern Ireland people are afforded the same level of respect as the rest of the UK population and allows us to see who is donating in secret to our politicians.

   Do you mean dinner for 250 grand, or over-claiming your expenses by 5 grand? It does take a Tory to reveal the passages of monies alright.

   I would imagine the Martin does want Owen to go away, I know I do, but then it looks like we won’t have long to wait. That said one interesting effect, consistently overlooked round these parts, is the conversation in parts of England who’d much rather keep their money for their own country than funnel it off to ingrates in Scotland, Ireland and even Wales (who managed a respectable protest against the queen just last week).

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9. Comment on “They seek to intimidate and bully through the threat of violence…”
   on 28 April 2012 at 8:48 am

   So let me ask, what evidence do we have that this is actually an effective way of dealing with anti social crime?

   The justice system is pathetic. Is there any evidence it works? Take the average PSNI clearance rates (I saw from 07/08). 20% of criminals caught. Whoop dee doo. Of those one in five how many end up being repeat offenders? Well there is probably some UK statistic somewhere, but something tells me good ole NI drags the average up.

   But let’s take the 2010 UK average of approx 50%. So that means from setting out to commit a reported crime that’s serious enough to get included in the stats (and hence not including anti-social behaviour) 90 out of every 100 criminals, thieves and violent attackers will be back living next door to their victims and planning to go again.

   The reason these attack happen is so simple: if the cops arrested that thief, he wouldn’t have been attacked. If the cops arrested him before he attacked that woman, she mightn’t have sought that kind of justice.

   The police say they’ll concentrate their efforts on catching punishment attackers, which demonstrates their institutional stupidity. So the problem – the crime and anti social behaviour – which fuels the demand will be further ignored.

   And finally, one last smack in the teeth for the victims, a lot of the scumbags are now protected by the PSNI. Because they’ve seen the dissidents, been spoken to by them, so now the cops are being that little bit more lenient with them as this thieving scumbag who was not long ago attacking young female children, is actually a witness to them. So they are emboldened.

   Dissidents are their primary – other victims are secondary to their primary of catching dissidents because we all know one policeman’s worth a hundred ordinary people.

   And as we have seen local reps find it difficult to provide clear leadership on this since historically they also championed the very same means in the past.

   A lot of people would say ‘this place has gone to the fucking dogs and no amount of buzz word laden horse shit is going to make me start “moving towards a better future for all” until such times as I can live my life without intruding on other people’s and not be tortured by scumbags’. The old justice system stopped some years back and it was replaced by nothing. Criminals are having the time of their lives.

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10. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
    on 23 April 2012 at 9:40 pm

    I took that to mean that Kane was merely suggesting that such an emergence was possible. He is probably right. Given the tendency of terrorist groups to emerge in Ireland at various times why would it be different if there was a vote to take NI out of the UK?

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. We have small terrorist groups now, and by this theory we’d have them again. As a point, it kind of cancels itself out.

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