Friday, September 18, 2009

“Shaking Hands acceptable” says Limerick priest

Fr Paul Finnerty, diocesan secretary confirms in this weeks Limerick Post that shaking hands is still acceptable in Mass. Concern had arisen amongst the mass going public that the  peace sign offered in Mass could transmit Swine Flu.

Fr. Finnerty comments in the piece “I have noted the HSE’s concerns as to the dangers of persons with flu’ symptoms attending at Mass and other church services.

“This constitutes the greatest danger of all in terms of spreading disease. It is advisable that persons with symptoms of flu’ not to participate in church services during their illness”.

and urges those with Flu symptoms not to attend Mass.

One would think that the Church would be encouraging the sick to flock en Mass (pardon the pun) to regular Sunday services. Where else could you expect to find a miracle cure or a pick me up. Where would the Church be today if Jesus had asked the sick to stay away from his sermons? Somehow I can’t picture the image of St Peter on the shore of Lake Galilee proclaiming to the Blind “If you can’t see your name on the list, then you can’t come in”

Consideration must be used in deciding exactly how far you want to extend the peace thing. No comment could be found from Fr. Finnerty on the recent case of  Tolu Akintepe and his wife Bunmi, who were caught in the act of having sex on the altar of the Pentecostal church in Ikeja, a suburb of Lagos, Africa.

More a case of “Bless me Father for I am sinning”. At least if she had screamed “Oh God” it would have been in the right place.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The internet

How did we live without the Internet. You can take your mobile phones, plasma TV's game boys and shove them up the hairiest part of your hairy arse. But not the Internet, these days we are like Siamese twins joined at the fingers. Twits Twittering, Face book, Bebo, MySpace, your space, his space, blogging.....never have so many people had the opportunity to publish so much personal detail and so much shite about themselves in one place.

Its scary to think that people can have friends all over the globe and share the most intimate details of themselves and their lives over the Internet and yet never manage to even know their neighbours surnames. Why would anyone tell you their date of birth, movies they watch, distinguishing features and show pictures of themselves and their children to the whole world or at best to some faceless strangers.

Aside from the desire to publish every last bit of information about your self on the net so that some like minded (pervert) can converse electronically with you, the Internet is probably single greatest educational tool since the blackboard duster. Where else can we see 'shopped photos of Brian Cowen, learn the starting line up for the 1983 Limerick Hurling team in their epic league game to Tipperary or watch every form of porn known to man.

The Internet has liberated Ireland and allowed 100 years of censorship to be eroded in a day. Thanks to this wondrous invention we can now (no matter how depraved or perverted our tastes may be) find pictures, movies and like minded individuals to indulge ourselves. 

No other tool developed allows us to share information, pictures, feelings, emotions and now video as easy as the Internet. Through this wonderful medium we can laugh, we can cry, we can dance around in frilly pink underwear holding a large cucumber whilst conversing with a truck driver named Skeeter in Arkansas whilst he pretends to be a cute 21 year old co ed named Debbie.

The Internet has allowed us to bare our souls and share our hopes dreams and fears for this world. It allows us to open up our lives and make this world we live in a smaller more humbling place. Best of all we can do this anonymously. Safe in the knowledge that no matter what shite we say, no matter what we write that a level of anonymity exists. Where else can you stumble into a forum, openly declare your love/ hatred for a topic, insult and flame (is that word dead now) everyone that disagrees with your opinion and feel you like a panellist on Questions and Answers or prime Time trying to look intelligent and not stare at Miriam's boobs. Where else can we lol, rofl, lofl or even gsfy (go shite for yourself) with complete strangers.

We live in the golden age. Once Bosco sang "if you want to know the time ask a policeman"....now world clock will tell you the time in Rio De Janerio, New York, Moscow and Tubbercurry. Once we read and studied to find knowledge. Now we can ask yahoo or Google or search through Wikipedia. Wikipedia, a value database of semi fictional bull shit soon to become the new Bible. Once we sat and spoke to each other over a pint, a cup of tea, the garden fence. Now we converse by PC, mobile phone. We speak more with our fellow contributors to the Star Wars thread on sciencegeeksdotcom that we do to our own families. We can watch sunsets in the Arctic, camels pissing in the Sahara and hookers on the streets of Amsterdam and never have to get dressed, pack a suitcase or buy a plane ticket.

Yes the Internet is all we need. Access to millions, no billions of friends. Knowledge at our finger tips. The ability to shape and help lives all over the planet and share the little gems of knowledge that have helped us through this life. A magical tool that can bring us closer together, a tool that no matter what colour, creed, religion or race you are we can all be safe in the knowledge that we are all one, we are all the same, all searching for those few good photos of Angelina Jolie in the nude.

Friday, September 11, 2009

NAMA, I have a cunning plan

I've been scratching my head all week thinking about NAMA. After several bottles of head and shoulders and a fairly intensive lice treatment I'm no closer to making any sense of it.
In simplistic terms. I buy a 1984 Ford Fiesta with alloy wheels, no engine and a rear spoiler for slightly more that its worth (lets say 35 million Euro). I of course don't have 35 million euro so i go straight to my bank manager. My learned friend in the bank recognising that 1984 Ford Fiesta's are selling like hot cakes lends me the money confident that 1984 Ford Fiesta's will be worth 50 million in a few months.

Of course reality sets in and when I try to drive my car I realise its useless. I try to off load it fast but the market if full of 1984 Ford's, 1985 Nissan Micra's and a glut of Honda Civic's with dodgy rear suspensions.

My banking friend who has loaned all this money is bricking it. At this point market forces should come into play. I should contact my local knacker who will come along and take my prize piece of junk and offer me "500 Euro boss, that's all she's worth".

My banking friend should be having a "Deliverance" style meeting with me and taking everything I own (including a rather soiled pair of underpants).

But as near as I can see that is not what is happening. The government is offering to buy the 1984 Ford at lets say 20 million. NAMA is hoping that the Ford will someday become a classic and might be worth, not 35 million but 50 or even a 100 million. This classic bit of market strategy is going turn our country around. The only thing missing here is Baldrick uttering those immortal words

“I have a cunning plan Mr Cowen”

Truly, am I missing something here?