Now, here's some fightin' words

From the NY Post's Mike Vaccaro:

. . . I am also certain that, relatively speaking, we are as sane, as sensible, as reasonable, and as rational, as any sports fan in the world. And that is because, as a people, we in New York look at a soccer ball and see a sleeping pill. We see a soccer game invade our television screen and will pull a hamstring lunging for the remote to change the channel.

I love that kind of stuff.

12,000 pubs?

I have to admit I really doubt the veracity of the Mr. O'Keefe's repeated claim yesterday that we already have 12,000 pubs in Ireland.

What Mr. O'Keefe means is that there are 12,000 licenses in existence. The licensing laws were written in the early 20th century and haven't changed much since. The VFI, which represents pubs outside Dublin, has approximately 6,000 members. The LVA, which represents Dublin's publicans, has "750 members and collectively represents 95% of all publicans in Dublin". Add those two figures together and you fall a bit short of the "12,000". I was really annoyed that Damien Kiberd didn't challenge Mr. O'Keefe on that yesterday.

You drink too much!

That was the message from the head of the Licensed Vintners Association, Donal O'Keefe, yesterday on Newstalk. The LVA's members are worried that if Michael McDowell goes ahead with his plan to allow for cafe bars that it will only make the "binge drinking" problem worse.

Mr. O'Keefe pointed out that it was illogical to think that adding these "small pubs" to the "12,000" we already have is going to help solve this problem. He may be right. Maybe we need fewer pubs, not more. However, I find it difficult to believe that the pub owners are that worried about the nation's excessive drinking. I just can't put my finger on what their concern might be.

What? You think their objections to cafe bars could have something to do with a fear of competition? That's an unworthy thought.

Saddest city on Earth?

My vote would be Montreal. Here it is the end of May and they have no hockey, due to the NHL's suicidal strike, and no baseball thanks to Major League Baseball's decision to relocate the Expos to Washington (the official MLB web site for the Expos is too cruel – nothing but blank pages). A minor league soccer game (and this is compared with the MLS) was their main sports story yesterday.

Bono on Bush

Long extract from Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas in this week's (London) Sunday Times. Probably nothing really new here, but Bono admits to liking President Bush and finding him funny.

I was in a photo with President Bush because he'd put $10 billion over three years on the table in a breakthrough increase in foreign assistance called the Millennium Challenge. I had just got back from accompanying the president as he announced this at the Inter-American Development Bank.

I kept my face straight as we passed the press corps, but the peace sign was pretty funny. He thought so, too. Keeping his face straight, he whispered, "There goes a front page somewhere: Irish rock star with the Toxic Texan."

I think the swagger and the cowboy boots come with some humour. He is a funny guy. Even on the way to the bank he was taking the piss. The bulletproof motorcade is speeding through the streets of the capital with people waving at the leader of the free world, and him waving back.

I say: "You're pretty popular here!"

He goes: "It wasn"t always so . . ." – Oh really? – "Yeah. When I first came to this town, people used to wave at me with one finger. Now, they found another three fingers and a thumb."

Although offering anything other than sneers at President Bush will lose Bono a lot of street cred with the Hollywood/celebrity set, I think Bono's praise for Jesse Helms has to be far more surprising.

Jesse Helms did me and everyone working on the global Aids emergency a great favour when he came out in our support. It was a great irony for me to find myself feeling such affection for this old cold warrior.

He did an incredible thing: he publicly repented for the way he had thought about HIV/Aids. Politicians rarely do that. He really changed the way people on the right thought about this disease.

Bono also admits that the left is not necessarily more "his friend" than the right in his mission to try to help tackle Africa's economic and health problems.

I know, I know – Bono's an overbearing egomaniac, but so are many mega-rich rock and movie stars. I think he's at least genuinely concerned with the people of Africa and doing his best to try to come to some understanding of what will make the place better. And he's obviously got an open mind, which is more than can be said of most wealthy celebrities.

The Undead Constitution

Too perfect. EU leaders have declared that the constitution is "still alive". I think what they mean is that the Constitution remains "undead". I suspect that this thing will lurch lifelessly around the landscape for a long time.

EU – branding nightmare

If any corporation had as muddled a brand image as the EU it would sell nothing. The EU's primary problem is that it means different things to different people in each member state. This breeds confusion. Often these different meanings are actually contradictory.

Is the EU heading towards a Federal super-state or is it not? Will there be a single federal tax regime? Will there be a single social welfare regime? Will there be an EU military or will each country always have its own army/navy/air force?

What about foreign affairs – one policy for the entire EU or many disparate, and often opposing, policies? How big will the EU get? Will the EU spread to Russia, the Caucuses, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon, Israel, elsewhere?

Anyone who claims that these issues have not been fudged is in denial. And, some of these questions have been fudged for a long time. Eventually all this fudging had to lead to a backlash.

The EU needs to settle on a concrete, manageable set of agreed statements that say this is what we are and this is what we hope to do. Until such time as this is done, the EU will continue to hemorrhage support. It's entirely possible that whole regions will opt out, but even that would be better than the drifting and deceipt that seem to alternate as the driving force of the EU.

Irish referendum

I suspect that all of this negative news from the rest of the EU is a ploy by the Irish government. Unlike most of the rest of the EU members, we have to have a referendum on the EU Constitution. If all the other member states vote 'No' before our vote comes up, I presume it'll pass fairly easily here – especially if all the major Irish political figures come out and denounce the Constitution and support a 'No' vote.

Then, once the Irish vote is bedded down, the rest of Europe can get on with the business of approving the Constitution regardless of their non-binding referendums (referenda).

Next up – Holland

How will the Dutch vote? Looks like a 'No' right now, but over the weekend Prime Minister Balkenende apparently said that if the Dutch people vote 'No' it would make him look like a fool (heard this on Newstalk just now). Is this one of those cultural things? Will this change minds? I can just imagine the reaction in this country if Bertie Ahern made a similar statement. It would be a 90% 'No' vote.

Regardless, there is some talk that the Dutch people will not bother voting at all now that the French have voted 'No'. The Dutch referendum is "non-binding", but all the Dutch political parties have agreed to abide by the result provided the turnout is at least 30%.

France votes 'No', world survives

From the moment I heard the result of the French referendum yesterday I have been waiting for divine retribution. You know, floods, fire, earthquakes, something 'catastrophic'. I thought that's what EU President Juncker was talking about last week. So far, so good (knock on wood).

Intellectual stratification

I really liked David Brooks's column today. I'll have to think about it more (I'm busy with other things at the moment), but my initial take is that he's right on the money and everything he says about modern America applies to Ireland too – possibly more so.

UPDATE May 30: I tried to update this post, but I clicked "save" rather than "post" and it disappeared. I didn't know that would happen.

Guantanamo

As I was reading Tom Friedman's column this morning, it struck me that more and more Americans are gradually becoming less comfortable with many of the trappings of the War on Terror. What was the preserve of a radical few in early 2002 is now becoming a more widely held perspective.

Friedman asserts that he's convinced that "more Americans are dying and will die if we keep the Gitmo prison open than if we shut it down". I don't know what evidence he has for that, but if Tom Friedman –– not a member of the loony fringe –– is saying "Close Gitmo" then I figure a lot of Americans must be thinking the same thing.

Friedman's belief is that the news emerging from Guantanamo is having a

toxic effect on us - inflaming sentiments against the U.S. all over the world and providing recruitment energy on the Internet for those who would do us ill.

I'm sure to a large extent he's right, but before we jump to any conclusions we should review how we ended up where we are.

On September 11, 2001 there was no prison camp at Guantanamo Bay nor any "U.S. military prison system dealing with terrorism". It didn't exist and there was no clamor for any such system to exist. We felt quite safe.

However, that was an illusion.

After September 11, there was little concern in the US about the rights of captured al Qaeda members. The concern was that another large scale attack was planned and that we didn't know anything about it.

The idea behind 'Gitmo' was that captured al Qaeda operatives and their allies would be brought someplace that was unfamiliar in an effort to disorient them. The hope was that they would reveal things about what they were doing, where they were doing it and whom they were doing it with.

As Friedman notes, there has been a lot of bad press about Guantanamo, in the US and globally. Loads of abuse stories, some of which may well be true. However, what hasn't been part of the press coverage is whether the Guantanamo enterprise has been successful in providing solid leads and advice for thwarting al Qaeda attacks and/or discovering their bases.

It's quite possible that this information cannot be made public. I can live with that. I would like, however, to hear from some trusted legislators on the issue. Before I leap on Friedman's "Close Gitmo" bandwagon, I want to hear from Senators McCain and Lieberman (or Clinton for that matter) that Guantanamo Bay is not bearing any fruit and should be closed. Absent that, I say straighten out the problems and get on with the business of running the place properly.

No exam pressure

I'm sure we're not unusual, but my wife and I have been much more insistent that our daughter relax, telling her that the exams are not that important. Watching the news from Meath we're feeling what most parents of teenagers are feeling this week – 'there but for the grace of God'.

School's out!

Always a happy day for me when my daughter's end of year math test has come and gone. I'm the world's worst math teacher ("It's as plain as the nose on your face that the answer is 12π") and she's not the most enthusiastic pupil ("I'm never going to use this anyway"). Can make for some tense moments.

On the upside I'm relearning all the things I've forgotten. It's not everyday that I have to calculate the volume of space in a rectangular box not occupied by three snugly fitting spheres. Or even the slope of a line and its perpendicular. Great fun.

Rogers' Rangers

Robert Rogers was a hero of the French & Indian War. He was the inspiration for the movie Northwest Passage with Spencer Tracy playing Rogers.

Rogers wrote a manual, Rogers'’ Ranging Rules, in which he

set down more than two dozen no-nonsense rules for frontier warfare. He insisted on the intensive training of his soldiers, including exposure to live-fire exercises. The result of his efforts was the creation of a highly mobile force that could sustain itself for long periods by living off the land.

Although he was not the first to use the frontier-fighting tactics he employed, he was the first to write them down as "rules" and this is why he's still a hero to rangers today.

The Rogers story does not have a happy ending, however. He was tried (& acquitted) for treason by the British, but didn't have much luck with the Continental Army when the Revolution broke out.

When the Revolution arrived in 1775, he applied for a commission. Rejected by George Washington as "the only man I was ever afraid of", Robert Rogers was instead arrested as a spy. In revenge, he escaped and turned Loyalist, commanded the Queen's Rangers, and fought against the American cause.

This weekend a statue to Rogers will be unveiled on the island – Rogers Island – he used as his base during the French & Indian War. Not everyone is happy with this, however. Some, including veteran Bob Bearor, object to the ceremony being held on Monday, Memorial Day, because Rogers fought for the British during the Revolutionary War. Others, including the veteran who owns the property where the statue will stand, don't see any issue with having the ceremony on Monday. That date simply facilitates a bigger gathering.

I think it's an interesting argument. The key is, what is Memorial Day all about.

The Revolution was another form of Civil War and I don't think excluding those who fought honorably for the British from Memorial Day makes any sense, seeing as those who fought for the Confederacy are honored. However, Rogers had no honorable role in the Revolution, although he was not Benedict Arnold.

Given his role in the French & Indian War, which was crucial in the development of what is the US today, I don't have a problem with this ceremony on Monday. I do think, however, that it would have been better to have it on a different day, say Labor Day.

I just came across this article from the Boston Globe. It seems Rogers may have been as bad as Arnold. Robert Rogers was the man who trapped Nathan Hale. That does it for me – he should not be honored in any way this weekend.

Great picture

Today's Irish Times a great picture on the front page. Appropriately unintrusive, but says so much about what happened on Monday.

Disaster for the world

Nothing sums up the arrogance of those who are driving the EU project more than this comment from EU President Jean-Claude Juncker:

If there is a 'no' on Sunday in France, that would be a catastrophe for France, for [French president Jacques] Chirac and for the entire world.

A 'catastrophe' for Chirac, almost certainly. A 'catastrophe' for France? Well, I actually doubt it, but I'm sure there could be some serious repercussions. A 'catastrophe' for the "entire world"? Well, Mr. Juncker, I think you're slightly exaggerating there.

I'm sure it was a bad translation. What he meant to say is that a French 'No' on Sunday would be like the entire world crashing down on him. It will definitely be a 'catastrophe' for Mr. Juncker, although I suspect even he'll survive it.

Collector's item?

Ìt's looking like the EU Constitution will not survive the upcoming referendums (referenda) in France & Holland. Now I'm annoyed at myself for taking my copy of the Constitution out of the wrapper. I could have held on to it and it probably would have been worth a fortune someday. It would have been a rarity in a few years and worth money among the eBay constituency like this collection of Pabst Blue Ribbon glasses. {Okay, probably not as valuable as that, but you get the idea.}

Counterpunch review

I found this review of Devils & Dust interesting. It's written by Harry Browne for Counterpunch.

I have a sneaking regard for Browne simply because he's a Met fan, but his politics are a long way removed from my own. So, I was a little surprised to find Browne criticizing Bruce Springsteen for endorsing John Kerry.

. . . for many of us on the left it was more distressing to see Springsteen, whose 9/11-inspired The Rising (2002) was astonishingly nuanced as well as frankly commercial, turn himself into a huckster for a mainstream pol.

I guess Springsteen should have endorsed Ralph Nader.

I know this is kind of a cheap shot, but I was also somewhat surprised to see that Counterpunch is an affiliate partner of Amazon.com. I know the left has to eat too, but still it surprises me when I find them partnering with corporate bloodsuckers like Amazon. After all, "nothing makes them happier" than when readers write in to tell them how "useful they've found our newsletter in their battles against the war machine, big business and the rapers of nature". Surely, Amazon.com would be included in "bug business".

Of course, I, as a committed capitalist, have no qualms about imbibing at Amazon's font.

Springsteen fan

I really enjoyed last night's show. Different experience to the E Street Band tour, but better in some ways. Hard to say.

Regardless, I'm not a big enough fan to get this tattoo. I suspect Chris will be getting one soon, however.