Ruarai

Reacting to the personal health care decisions taken by Gerry Adams, the Irish Indo* reports an attack by the SDLP’s Conall McDavitt McDevitt in the following terms. “In terms of socialism and social democracy, this is against SDLP values of not seeking better treatment simply because you have more money”. Since the South Belfast MLA’s Stormont appearances mean he trousers considerably more cash, vacation and benefits than most of Northern Ireland’s and indeed the world’s workers I assume that whatever …

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At a time of great austerity and joblessness, anxiety and uncertainty, Northern Ireland has distinguished itself, once again, by finding a whole week to devote to identity politics. Make that two weeks because we’re about to go another round. Next Tuesday’s census figures could reveal a foreseeable tipping point: the moment when the PUL (Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist) majority Northern Ireland was created to serve no longer represent its dominant block – with all that that entails. The reaction scripts have already been …

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The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook (Hat Tip Dan Savage) RuaraiStrategic Communications Consultant, located in Washington, D.C.

A major story has broken in the US. Though the following story had started to break, the gathering storm is no longer this: The CIA, under the leadership of General David Patraeus, may have defied a directive from President Obama to close down secret prisons, opting instead to maintain the practice and extending it to Benghazi, Libya. The suggestion of the secret prison operation’s continuation has come from someone not easily dismissed as uninformed. The source, Paula Broadwell, has more …

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President Obama projected to win in Ohio; Democrats hold Senate; GOP hold House – Tea Party loses big. And the fight kicks off in conservative circles. David Frum: How? Why? The short answer is: The Tea Party struck again Bill O’Reilly: Why dwell on the fall-out among the defeated side? Because how Republicans react to this defeat – a defeat despite an unemployment rate north of 8% – may shape American politics for the next 4 years. Will Republicans dig …

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Cynicism is reputed to induce wariness. On Voting Day in the US it should trigger the opposite. Try watching attempts to disenfranchise US minority voters while simultaneously tuning into FOX News’ ‘report’ on how Republicans are the likelier casualties of voter intimidation; you’ll feel only anger, raw anger. The real story of this election is surely less the potential outcomes and more the corrupt process itself. Let us speak plainly here: There is a concerted, organized effort, once again, to …

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In a fine piece that touches on how an understanding of the American South’s Ulster Scots lineage may help explain some of the cultural roots driving modern America’s Blue-Red division, The Spectator’s Alex Massie, suggests that the “echoes of the Frontier can still be heard in contemporary American politics”.   Massie is careful not to ascribe causation or simplistic links between immigrant histories and modern American attitudes, but he isn’t blind to their presence either. Reflecting on the American cultural South’s ties to …

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RuaraiStrategic Communications Consultant, located in Washington, D.C.

What makes it legitimate for the Scottish people, composed as they are of Scottish Unionists and Nationalists (and, if you insist, “Others”), to vote on independence as one national group? I’ve never subscribed to the “two Irelands” or “two nations” theory in Irish politics but Scottish Nationalists be forewarned, it could be coming your way soon. It boils down to this: Though Ireland voted for independence in the 1918 General Election (Sinn Fein winning a massive 73 of the 105 seats) …

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Not since Lazarus of Bethany was raised from the grave has anyone performed an act of resuscitation as generous and staggering as that performed by Obama on Romney tonight. Romney was recently shown lacerating the “47% of the country” who are “victims” who pay no income taxes. Since the foundation of the Republic US politicians have made careers (and misery) out of attacking and scapegoating minorities. But when the minority of the country you attack is literally 47% of it …

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If a country’s national flag supposedly represents its two noisiest tribes, a visitor could be forgiven for assuming that a region, like Belfast, where both groups coexist in greatest numbers would most vividly reflect the nation as a whole. Ireland does things differently. Its Orange tribe has long been casually disparaged as a “funny sort of Irish“. In more recent years, we increasingly hear talk categorizing the “Northern Irish” as a different – even deviant – category; the ‘southern’ Irish are apparently the norm, …

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The fastest way to immobilize a progressive during the 2007-08 US election season was to suggest that Barack Obama, though captivating, was not quite as effective a public speaker as Bill Clinton. Voicing this blasphemy invariably provoked a stunned look of incredulity that, aside from offering the contrarian a too-good-to-miss wind-up tactic, betrayed how Obama’s supporters were attracted in part, and to an unusually large degree, not simply to the individual man on stage but to the desires and hopes …

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No, not that one. This was Lily Ledbetter providing last night’s DNC convention with some much needed real world perspective. “A few pennies may not be much if you’ve a Cayman Island bank account” This woman has earned the right to speak. And if you think Eamonn McCann can deliver a line… RuaraiStrategic Communications Consultant, located in Washington, D.C.

How can you test your open-mindedness? A common theme characterizing responses to Turgon’s interesting question on how we might respond to monstrous and dangerous beliefs and believers like Anders Breivik got me thinking about this. Several commentors focused on Breivik’s ideas and how these might be challenged and exposed as weak. This focus assumes that the challenge with limiting the potency of extreme ideologies is essentially an intellectual one: Extreme actions are rooted in extreme beliefs; ergo, we should engage and expose (or isolate) dangerous ideas. The problem with this approach is its …

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Ryan picked – quick, initial reaction: The flatness of politics typically derives from the narrow, compromised options available to voters. Competing candidates frequently seek to blur real ideological distinctions by instead drawing contrasts around “character” issues while wrestling for the “middle ground”. The result: Not much of a choice for voters beyond which candidate reminds them most of their own “values” biases. This problem of limited distinction and thus choice has been increasingly receding in US politics since the GOP’s hard …

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Lads, I need your advice. I’m about to set off to Philly to see the famous Glasgow Celtic show Real Madrid how it’s done. But I’ve a few concerns I’d appreciate pre-gaming with you. Questions. You know I’m gonna get them. Although 300 million-plus Americans have acquired a bit of a reputation for parochialism despite representing the most diverse range of identities, ethnicities and politics there’s ever been in one place, let me I assure you, tomorrow morning I’ll be fielding questions from …

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Women are not making it to the top. A hundred and ninety heads of state; nine are women. Of all the people in parliament in the world, 13 percent are women. In the corporate sector, [the share of] women at the top—C-level jobs, board seats—tops out at 15, 16 percent – Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, 2010 What’s going on? In a now infamous 2010 TED talk, Sandberg firmly located a prime cause of women’s absence from the Top Jobs on the heads …

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Katie Taylor: Ireland’s finest; Olympic Champion One of the few forces in London to rival the power of our 132 pound five times* World Champion has been the unrestrained guttural roar of her crowd. SportsIllustrated has been caught off guard almost as much by the ferocity of her followers as by the technical excellence of the Irish champion they’ve described as “virtually unbeatable” “Katie Taylor popped out of the tunnel and, suddenly, you couldn’t hear your mother if she was standing in …

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David Brooks may be onto something here: “If your identity is formed by hard boundaries, if you come from a specific place, if you embody a distinct musical tradition, if your concerns are expressed through a specific paracosm, you are going to have more depth and definition than you are if you grew up in the far-flung networks of pluralism and eclecticism, surfing from one spot to the next, sampling one style then the next, your identity formed by soft …

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The hidden video footage below exposing the incessant harassment encountered by a woman walking alone on a Brussels street is simply shocking. At least, it is to me. Question for readers: Do women walking in Belfast face anything similar, not just in type but in degree? All responses appreciated. According to The Guardian*, French feminists said the film showed how street harassment was a universal issue for women. But how universal is this? No doubt street harassment exists as a …

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