Scary Halloween Blog

It has been a funny few weeks—with more allegations about Gerry Adams rising from the dark swamp. Amazingly a young woman without any factual evidence was given the freedom of the southern media, and also access to the highest office in the land. People were speculating on her allegations which were presented as been true and of great political importance, RTE informed us that many within Sinn Féin were red faced and worried. The twitter folk were going for it as well with some outraged tweeters on the verge of hysteria, the Jean McConville case came back with such venom that one could only wonder at the ineptitude of the PNSI in deciding that Mr Adams had no case to answer—as it turns out to be in the Maíria Cahill case also, that case is slowly dissolving into a report down the road job.
The whole sad mess casts great doubts about our media and its ability to feed those ‘who’s minds are made up,’ on Gerry Adams these people swallow the Free State fantasy that the minority in the North could have negotiated their way to freedom, peace, and a fair society the reality is that without the IRA they would have faced annihilation and the status quo would have flourished. The Free State politicians know this but they need to feed the ‘who’s minds are made up,’ brigade as they are their own constituency and it is a sign of gross insecurity that these animal traps are set for Adams anytime the Shinners show signs of rallying.

Indeed it has been a funny few weeks and for those of you that think I am a secret Shinner or an apologist forget it they won’t be getting my vote in the next election not a chance. My problem with them is on a few different levels. I get a great sense of pragmatism right throughout the organisation, when attacks come like the Maíria Cahill debacle they don’t all come out fighting and screaming in defence of the party, no they stay silent for days. The Shinners run for cover someone must have advised them that all stories no matter how bad have a shelf life of about three days—remember the Tuam Babies the biggest scandal to hit the state what’s happening about it—some sort of report a tribunal? I am not sure are you?

So the Shinners hide, of course Gerry Adams is a stalwart and he will stand up in the Dail and challenge Kenny and so will Mary Lou, then RTE will show Kenny make a winning retort and then cut back to studio, [they think we don’t notice] but where are the rank and file Shinners save for a few exceptions they go missing, actually it is hard to get any tweeting Shinners to engage in twitter debate—it is like they wear a gag.

Of course they are adamant now about water charges and protests after a disastrous slip round the time of the Dublin West By-election where they were outflanked by Paul Murphy of the socialist party. I think maybe that is my real problem with the Shinners their brand of leftism is soaked in pragmatism whereas I like my lefties to be strong and radical. This pragmatism sunk to new depths when the Shinners amazingly rejected all notions of republicanism and civil liberties in the process, when they supported the DUP bill on Sex Workers as in the Nordic model which criminalises the buyers of sex rather than the prostitute. I have a major problem with this as firstly the Nordic model has had mixed results yes it appeared to clean up the activity in the beginning, but many have commented that this model just pushes sex workers and their clients beyond the law and into the hands of criminality.

On the civil liberties issue, many presume those who purchase sex are abusing women, but that is not the case there are many lonely depressed, disabled, and needy people in society who often buy sex for company and for physical relief many able bodied and happy people want to buy these services also but now they are to be treated as criminals. The sex workers themselves will find their business is affected pushing many of them into poverty and possibly into the arms of criminals, the bottom line for me is that if a person can legally pay for sex in Berlin or Auckland why not Belfast or Dublin. The whole Nordic idea is utterly daft as prostitution like other society dislikes as in abortion is here to stay we need to legalise it put it under the control of state so it is safe for all.

It’s been a funny few weeks—culminating into today’s passage into winter and reminding me of the days of apples & nuts, but now like the imposition of private medicine and the persistent drive towards privatisation, we have ‘Trick or Treat,’ and have you ever seen anything like the parental supervision of ghouls & spiders webs on front doors—I remember when we went out after dark to forage alone and if you weren’t careful some sneaky neighbour might slip a garden snail into your bag, imagine the fuss now—the phones would be hopping on ‘talk to Joe,’ yes it’s funny how things change and how I suddenly realised that we can’t fund our services to any acceptable level anymore and they keep introducing stealth taxes and cutting and selling off public services imagine that, a country with just about five million souls can't produce enough indigenous wealth to fund its state and it has to be run like a business with lots of smart fellas talking about ‘off balance sheet,’ and the like, how about we pick up a blank sheet of paper and we work out exactly what it will cost us to mind each other properly and then we tell the international money vultures to fuck off and we start work on becoming self-sufficient.

Have to rush there are kids with their parents knocking on my front door looking for sweets, and saying stupid things like ‘Trick or Treat,’