Profile for ordinary joe
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ordinary joe has commented 12 times (0 in the last month).
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Books
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A poem for the day – Launching the Whaler Juan Peron
A Belfast epic, and one of my oldest poems, the opener of my first collection, Grub. The gist of the story was found in Moss & Hume’s Shipbuilders to the World: 125 Years of Harland and Wolff, Belfast, 1861-1986, which tells how Eva Peron was due to launch a huge whaling vessel in Belfast, built [...] read our review » -
Do Words Matter?: Book Review of Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution – Debating Peace in Northern Ireland
I share many of the concerns of Andy Pollak, whose recent post ‘My Response to the Slugger Begrudgers’ zeroed in on the ‘relentless flow of negativity’ of some Slugger commentators. Pollak’s post was largely concerned with the medium of the blog. Indeed, I think the anonymity of the online world encourages extreme discourse and allows [...] read our review »
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“You can see Newton’s mind at work…”
To add to the open access treasure trove at the Royal Society, Cambridge University Library is putting online some of its collection of books, maps, manuscripts and journals. We have called the first phase of our work on the Cambridge Digital Library the Foundations Project, which runs from mid-2010 to mid-2013 and has been made possible [...] read our review »
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Comment on Ban on Irish radio outside Belfast
on 21 February 2012 at 10:24 pm
At 8:28 pm is that the Londonderry that is four miles from Derry and eight miles from Manchester?
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Comment on … in terms of noise and output, Sinn Féin has proved more effective.
on 10 January 2012 at 11:24 pm
‘Cullen doesn’t really speculate on how or where Sinn Fein may seek to develop its vote over the life of the 31st Dail.’
Paul Cullen seems to do just that in the longer and harder-edged piece in today’s Irish Times: “Party must come out of the ghetto if it wants to replace Fianna Fail as national political movement”. It’s also linked on Newshound.
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Comment on Pandas and Psephology of Scotland.
on 6 December 2011 at 11:39 pm
You’re right, Reader – a possessive plural, so “pandas’ appearance”.
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Comment on Oppression through the policing of clothing
on 3 September 2010 at 5:12 pm
In 2004 President Niyazov banned beards and long hair for young men in Turkmenistan. And in 2009 Pakistan International Airlines banned beards on its employees. Though they’re compulsory for French Foreign Legion sapeurs.
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Comment on Photograph of the Day – Remember the fallen
on 2 September 2010 at 6:09 pm
Prionsa Eoghann
Not getting much time to visit Slugger this week but maybe one last belated comment.
I agree that context is an important influence on meaning, though I’m not sure if terms that carry for instance a racial or religious sting are easily converted to inoffensive neutrality.
Perhaps there are designations like brit and teuchter (just maybe) that can journey back and forward between connoting self-respect and disrespect.
MU makes a fair point that a derogatory term can also shift from a specific group onto a more general community.
With his examples I doubt that too many of those using them in this wider context are asking to see membership documents or season tickets before employing their tongues or their spray cans.
You’re right that it’s easy to overreact, and it’s harder to balance the rights of individuals and groups with the right to freedom of speech, particularly if (to cadge from George Orwell again) freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
I saw a documentary earlier this year about Tehran by an Iranian guy (who had got his resources from the Iranian regime) who used irony, mischief and juxtaposition (context again) to make something far more hard hitting than if he’d just called a spade a spade.
Anyway, enough said.
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Comment on Photograph of the Day – Remember the fallen
on 31 August 2010 at 1:12 pm
Prionsa Eoghann
It’s pretty simple really.
The positions you adopted earlier on this thread might have convinced more if you yourself hadn’t been casually using the argot of the sectarian football rammy on other recent threads.
You appeared to be claiming earlier on this thread that ‘hun’ is basically an almost benign and slightly archaic folk-term.
Now you’re calling it a colloquialism, and you’re still in the middle of that rather large river.
Terms that demeaningly aggregate individuals or social cultural and religious groups and which find their habitual use in that context are not colloquialisms.
And in modern times it’s the opinion of the affected group rather than the often economical or self-serving position of the user that matters more.
Anyone who can casually talk of proddies orangies huns and hauf wits and who at the same time expects their opinions on sectarianism to be taken seriously should perhaps bear in mind George Orwell’s claim: if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
Despite your protestations to the contrary I seem to recall that when you started to talk of ‘huns’ on another thread, you were called on it by the poster.
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Comment on Photograph of the Day – Remember the fallen
on 29 August 2010 at 2:57 pm
Prionsa Eoghann
Can I suggest that the introspectivity (sic) might begin a bit closer to home.
You have been using terms such as proddies orangies huns and hauf wits on this site over the last few weeks. I think you were warned about using hun.
Earlier in this thread you claim that hun is a relatively innocent and ingenuous term, your comparatives being (to quote you) as in going to the chinkys or to the paki shop.
Thanks for the information that it’s also mostly used only by older people.
I was under the misapprehension that it was a key term in the virulent lexicon of Glasgow soccer sectarianism.
Denial is not a large river in west central Scotland.
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Comment on “There is something innately toxic about a public position that demands of all of us…”
on 2 April 2010 at 3:03 am
Facts or fables? There is currently on Wikipedia a slightly less hagiographic account of the late Cearbhall O’Dalaigh than the above canonization.
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Comment on The origins of distrust between unionists and the Tories…
on 23 March 2010 at 2:54 am
Precisely, Impartial. In my earlier post I was referring to the historical Joseph Stalin, nom de guerre of Josif Dzugashvili, and not to the ‘Joseph Stalin’ who posts on this site. I was going to point this out but thought I’d be insulting his intelligence. My criticisms were made about the troll ‘Moderate Unionist’. All clear now? Oh dear, first substantive comment on Slugger and monstered by the Alliance party. (Locks drawing room door, reaches for revolver).
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Comment on The origins of distrust between unionists and the Tories…
on 23 March 2010 at 2:00 am
‘Moderate Unionist’ is not a nom de plume, more a nom de guerre – like for instance Joseph Stalin, but only if Uncle Joe had called himself something like Peace Loving White Guard. In other words he’s a false-flag troll, who’s been posing on this site for some months, and it’s been painful to watch. He recently outed himself in case anyone had failed to notice how clever he’d been. Why do we have to put up with his endless posturing, vanity and bad faith? It’s a call for the site administrators. Perhaps the UU’s Tory allies might be reassured to know that harsh criticism of the ‘anti-agreement’ Ulster Unionists on this site stems in part from a black operation. However for me the presence of such an operation does nothing to maintain confidence in the general veracity of this site and its commenters.
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