Raiméis

I might have expected this in France (because of their laws) but not in the UK. A young Muslim teacher has been suspended for wearing her veil in class. According to the school, Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury West Yorkshire, it was because the children found it difficult to understand her during English language lessons. Lads, it’s a veil not a muzzle.
Interesting to see how this turns out as it’s just part of a much larger discussion taking place in the UK at the moment. Personally I think Muslims should consider if a hijab or shayla (they leave the face open) would be more appropriate in today’s society. Veils like the burqa cut off a vital part of communication, it’s important to be able to actually see who you’re talking to.
Still, it’s a matter for the Muslim community, one which I think they should give serious thought to especially in today’s climate of fear and mistrust.
I haven’t yet heard of any such issues in Ireland. Have you?

Via TCAL, now this is how to deal with telemarketers!

Much much better from Ireland tonight who finally get their first point of the campaign against the Czech Republic [note for Bill O'Herlihy, it's not Czechoslovakia!]. It was a good performance and in some ways we were unlucky not to take all three points from the game. The sad thing is that it took Saturday’s humiliation to motivate the team enough to turn out such a performance. What we saw tonight we should have seen last Saturday, in the game against Germany and in previous games. We still have problems to fix but at least we should get some encouragement from tonights game, the lads showed great commitment, urgency and hunger, something missing from previous games. The young lads played well especially the man of the match McShane and goalie Henderson, we might have a couple of future stars there.
The depressing thing for me is that Stan is still the manager. I just don’t have any faith in him, I don’t believe he can motivate the team or get what’s needed out of them. What we need to be aiming for now is at least a 3rd place finish, which will mean we need to play as good as if not better than we played tonight in each remaining game. Can we do it? That remains to be seen. Anyway, well done Ireland!

Fun with headlines … been a while since the last one.

Reuters: Genetic mutation doubles breast cancer risk: study
Although they don’t say what the risk is of becoming a genetic mutant. Plus it’s a good thing the teenage mutant ninja turtles don’t have tits as they are much more at risk that the rest of us, maca óg would be devastated.

Techdirt: Is Reselling Your Shampoo Bottle Online Illegal?
Why the fuck would you want to resell your shampoo bottle, online or otherwise? Cheap bastard, just give it to your sister!

RTÉ: Ahern and McDowell to meet again
“Well, it’s been like at least a few days since I last saw him. I don’t know if I’ll recognise him. Does he actually look like Hitler or is that just his knick?”

RTÉ: Obstacles in way of Aer Lingus takeover: Cowen
“We’ve a big fuckin filing cabinet and two desks blocking the door, ders no way dat hoor O’Leary will get in” says Minister for Spending, Brian Cowen.

Breaking News: Ben Dunne facing tribunal quiz about Cargobridge loan
How does that work exactly?
Dum dum dummmmm. “Mr. Dunne you have chosen the category Cargobridge Loans and your time starts … now …”

Breaking News: Jolie and Pitt thank India
“That’s it? At least Alanis Morissette wrote a song about us.” responds India.

RTÉ: Hostile attitude from US, claims North Korea
“Grorge Brush is rust a brig meaney proo” claims North Koran leader Kim Jong Il … *breaks into song*

I’m so Ronery, So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
There no one, Just me onry

Sitting on my rittle throne, I work reary hard and make up great prans
but nobody ristens no one understands, Seems rike no one takes me serirousry
And so, I’m ronery
A rittle ronery, Poor rittle me

There’s nobody I can rerate to, Feewl rike a bird in a cage
It’s kinda sirry, but, not rearry
because, it’s fiwring my body with rage

I’m the smartest, most cwever, most physicry fit
but, nobody else seems to rerarise it
When I change the world maybe they’ll notice me
And until then, I just be ronery
Yeah, rittle ronery
Poor rittle me…
I’m so ronery.

(I couldn’t hrelp it – Ed)

Previous Fun with headlines: 1, 2, 3

I just noticed on c|net that Google have combined Writely & Spreadsheets to create Google Docs & Spreadsheets. An obvious move I suppose, it’s already online if you want to check it out. What’s next I wonder, combine it with Page Creator? Another way to share your documents through your Google manufactured web page hosted by Google! After that? Google Base or combine it with some of the searches (Scholar) or Gmail? I’m more impressed by Google every time I play around with their products.

It looks like i’ll be staying with Smart for the forseable future then. As far as I know phone customers have two weeks to find another provider but Smart will continue to provide broadband. And to make up for the recent problems all broadband customers get a 3Mb speed upgrade for the rest of the year! Not bad. A did a test earlier and i’m only averaging around the 4Mb mark but still that ain’t bad for €35 per month. Hopefully they won’t run out of cash next week.

I just discovered another Ráiméis in our blogosphere, started [and ended] by Caitlín Jim last February. Pity she didn’t keep it going.

My second attempt at putting my thoughts into words after tonights depressing game. I had a really long post written about it, about the players and about Stan but i’ve cooled down now and rewritten it.

Tonight was embarrassing. The performance was nothing short of shameful. It’s our most embarrassing defeat in decades, the draw in Liechtenstein years ago pales in significance to tonights game. Who’s to blame? The players for lack of commitment and for an awful awful display of what I thought was supposed to be soccer. And Stan. I was shocked when he was appointed manager, I thought it was a mistake and I think it would be a bigger mistake to suffer through 3.5 more years of poor results and performances before replacing him. Building for the future my hole.

On Wednesday we face the Czech Rep and that will be our Euro campaign over, after only three games. I’m too cheesed off to say any more.

Edit: Still pissed off after yesterday’s game but I got up this morning and stuck on my Ireland t-shirt. In the dark times all you can do is stand by your team. Hope they make some serious changes though, in attitude or otherwise.

According to reports the EU’s environmental body is using Dublin as an example of what not to do when it comes to urban planning. Apparently Dublin’s urban sprawl is a “worst-case scenario” in city planning. Plus it reportedly says that “extremely passive” planning policies have also led to undesirable urban sprawl in towns and villages throughout Ireland.

Hold on for a minute … planning? What planning?? Very poor research on behalf of the EU’s environmental body thinking that we actually plan anything here … guffaw snort chortle … gobshites!

p.s. I still get a laugh out of this. [from Gerry O'Sullivan's blog]

A short message to Bertie and pals,

“The Government has raked in €1.8bn more tax than expected in the first nine months of this year, it was revealed today.”

Great!! Well, with all this talk of gifts and loans and so on I just want to remind you, before you stick half of that cash in your pockets, that there are other ways you could use some of that money. Here are some hints …

• we have the second WORST health care system in Europe

• Child care is Ireland is the most expensive in Europe, it’s forcing mothers to stay at home and making it difficult for many families to survive

• 6.8% of Irish people live in consistent poverty with a further 19.4% at risk of poverty; 9.5% of children live in consistent poverty with a further 21.2% at risk of poverty [2004]

• there are approx 2015 homeless people (220 homeless families WITH children) in Dublin alone [2005]

• there are well over 150,000 lone parents in Ireland; about a third of them live in consistent poverty; about half of them have only the Junior Cert level education

• the International Adult Literacy Survey carried out in 1997 claims that 25% of our population has only level 1 literacy i.e. they can barely read or write, that’s half a million people! This figure is still the estimate as of May 2006

• 431 people died through suicide in Ireland in 2005; hundreds of thousands of people suffer from forms of depression, I think these people could use some support or guidance

• many of our Gardaí are facing physical dangers every day yet have to rely on donations from police forces in the US for basic protection like stab vests

• hundreds die on our roads each year yet our Gardaí are under resourced and ill equipped to deal with many of the causes such as speeding etc

If I thought about it for another minute I could probably add a few items to that list, it wouldn’t be hard. The bottom line here is while you’re all clapping yourselves on the back for a job well done [screwing the Irish population] all is not well in this fine state of ours, far from it a chairde.