June, 2011

Dead Peasants

Noel Farrell

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Branding Bullshit
June 2, 2011

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Leo 'I think I might be Taoiseach' Vadaker came out over the weekend to say Ireland will need a second bailout soon enough. Enda Kenny must have been wondering why he appointed him to the cabinet table and quickly moved to silence him by denouncing such a notion. I'm sure 'Tricky Dicky' Bruton is going to grow a pair of horns out of his head any day now as he continues to insist on driving the lower class down into a new social bracket, The Lowered Class. To think I nearly backed that man over Enda Kenny last Summer. Shame on me. Chuck them both out now Enda while the irons hot. Next thing you'll have Joan Bruton out saying Nooner is shite at his job. Like all governments, they sell you what you want to get into power. Let me put it another way. They lie. Modern day politics is corrupted with it. With divide and rule the old tactic they make those who 'live off the State' feel worthless when they comfortably live off the state themselves...for life. There's morons running around the golf courses of this country on this island today living off the taxpayer with nothing of note on many of their CV's except having bankrupted us as a nation. There's a lot of bankrupted folk doing the same living off NAMA handouts. I can also exclusively tell you that it's more than a couple of hundred a week. We're Europeans now. We do what Europe say. And our friends in New York too. I personally didn't buy into the Super-State approach, but bound by the will of the people I am one now, like it or lump it. A fair approach would be to hand the power back to the people and let them decide based on honesty, laying before them all consequence of action and have a Lisbon 3. Throw a few more things into the equation while we are it and vote on that on the same day. There's to many politicians in this country and most of them are in it for personal gain. The perks are, and remain there. It's the only show in town if your not in NAMA or a banker.

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Fingers
June 6 2011 ,

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We were promised a heatwave and as usual the rain came to spoil it. One day we got, before she decided to empty down on us. It's amazing how in recession the promise of just a little sun, especially in summer, can lift the spirits. But no, like Fianna Fil a few months back, we were denied. I wonder if we will be as unforgiving to Fine Gael and Labour next time around. It amazes me as I read around how people seem upset that they have been shafted at the ballot box. Still at the very least, maybe the good people of this island might nally be waking up and an end to cronyism and family dynasties in this country may be at an end in the next hundred years. Being long term unemployed at this stage almost makes me a veteran when it comes to discovering every single piece of bad politics practiced in this country since the summer of 2009. That's being generous to those in its practice, because it has been going on for many years here. I have never on this blog bought into the media line that it was because our politicians were just morons, because there is no way any rationally thinking person could believe that such a calamity could take place like that. That's like letting a kid run the country - one with a grudge for society. As the life blood of this country is sucked from us in any way possible, the establishment continue on their merry, removed way. For some strange reason not a whimper either from the multiple classes that now make up Irish society. Not sure if you remember the SSIA saving scheme back in 2001, where the government matched every four euro people saved with another one. Free money in other words. I wonder how many people used that money to get their legs on to the property ladder and where they stand today with regard the equity on their purchases. Would it even be possible to suggest the whole thing was just electoral posturing by Fianna Fil to number one fuel 'the bubble' and number two to make them re-electable at the time some investment matured. It must be soul-destroying for anyone who purchased houses or decided to become a developer at the tail end of the Celtic
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Tiger. Of course these days with the exception of the establishment, this country is being bled dry of its educated people and remaining money. No, the boo-boo was just to big for it all to be classied as simply mistakes. There has to be more at play. Ireland is supposed to be a neutral country, yet Wikileaks have exposed in the past week through a national newspaper that everything that goes on in this country is relayed to our buds over in America. If you've been following the cables then you'll know politics once again comes out smelling of stink. Doesn't seem to bother many though. Shows total disrespect for the men of 1916, yet these clowns will lavish themselves in 2016 when it comes down to celebrating what they died for. I wonder where the rest of us will be then? The ordinary people are so benign to how this country operates at times that it borders on unbelievable. The classic case in point in all this is Corrib and what has happened over there with Shell Oil and how the government have propped their planet-killing every step of the way. And what lies beneath it all? Greed. What good is having everything when your gone? Perhaps there is something we mere mortals just don't know about? As science wings its way towards an answer to everything, I sometimes wonder what will change from our present understanding over the coming years. Matter, anti-matter, maybe even, it doesn't matter. And as they split the atom and delve further into the quantum, I have a very funny feeling that when they do get in there to the point they can split no more, perhaps lying in wait for them will be one pretty rm middle nger. Now wouldn't that be absurd? Image
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Invisible Aspects
June 10 2011 ,

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There are probably not a lot of worse things in life than waking up to bad news. Today was one of those days. They are strange sort of days in many ways and certainly not describable in a blog written mostly off the bat. The death of ex-Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was sad at the age of just 52. He hadn't looked well for a while and he wasn't in attendance in the Dil in the past few weeks. It's just 18 short months since TV3 broke the news that he was battling pancreatic cancer. Those words still send shivers down my spine. I lost a good friend to the same thing when I was 21. There's little doubt about it, it threw me sideways for a while. I'd lived with him in The Netherlands in 1991 when I worked over there for a year at the tail end of the last big recession. He offered me a room in his house he shared with his wife and two cats. It was one of the best years of my life. With things on the up in Ireland i returned after a year. Just a few short months later I received a call from him to say he'd Cancer in his stomach. They did everything they could. He did everything he could...and a whole lot more. He faced it all with the mentality that he could beat it. Four weeks before he passed they told him there was no more they could do. In a way it broke his spirit, but he never uttered a bitter word and lived life even more from the day he was told he had it, almost up to the end. I visited him weeks before he died. He had accepted it. We took a trip to an amusement park where he ushered me on to a roller coaster. Number 1, I'm afraid of heights and number 2, I'm a coward. 'What if it comes off?' I remember asking. 'Like I care,' he replied. Scariest 90 seconds of my life. He went for seconds. I went to get sick. He was 33 when he died. There's been a bit of venom ying around the place today on the Internet concerning the passing of Brian Lenihan. Personally I found that disturbing and vile.
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His political legacy will be for another generation to write about. I genuinely felt sorry for the guy when I heard the news of his illness 18 months back. I had a little knowledge on the road that lay ahead for him. I'm astonished how in the face of such personal adversity he managed to carry on doing his job and at the most crucial time in recent Irish history. I don't have to say I disagreed with him every step of the way. Like my friend, the way he carried himself as he battled is something that any decent person can surely admire. It's courage not many of us may ever know thankfully. But it denitely courage to aspire too. Cancer is one of societies big ills. 1 in 3 will get it at some time in life. There are hundreds if not thousands of stories out there which I'm sure can speak about the courage displayed when faced with battling all its nastiness throws at not just the sufferer, but in many cases those around them too. Hopefully science will provide the answers some day. There's so many branches that spring off the tree of any given life. Little side roads that lead to crossroads and often down cul-de-sac's. Politics was one such branch for Brian Lenihan, but I'm sure his family will say there were many more too. His passing today put a lot of things once again in perspective, the trigger for sadness being the memory of my friend. I started writing my rst book in his home way back then. I know he'll be glad to know I got there in the end. Life should never be summed up by one aspect of it. I'm sure Brian Lenihan's won't, and I know by the way people talk about my friend still, he did Ok too. R.I.P
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In the Summertime
June 17 2011 ,

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So the government hit the 100 days in ofce yesterday. Most targets set out pre-election have not been met and those that have, well are you inspired? The unemployment gure is down, but that is due to the way they handle seasonal adjustments over at the Central Statistics Ofce. There's been no reduction in the bailout terms. In real terms nothing has changed. There was a promise yesterday that there will be no tax increases or social welfare cuts in December's budget, but many of us have heard that before. And if there are to be no tax increases or cuts in welfare, well the money, or should I say the cutting of it, will still have to be found in other ways. I have a solution for the short-term. Let's use everyone on the dole and incorporate them into an international think-tank for a spell. Let's lm the lot and study them for 19 hours a week. On rota-bonus to be given for the graveyard shift. Volunteers who want the night shift are immediately made overseers... I mean supervisors. It would be a publicity stunt though. I mean what could society gain from the study of those who have no work. What would they have to offer to rival superior beings of intellect. You know, the rule-setters, the guardians of free society. The Dil is off on its Summer recess shortly. Few months off. Where would one get it? Of course there is much work to be done at the parish pumps, it's not like there is a national and international economic crisis folding before our very eyes. Never mind those troublesome Arabs who dare to want some freedom of their own from their genocide-practicing western-educated leaders. We here in Ireland have a knack of getting rid of citizens, but thankfully its without army intervention. We just shake our heads and leave, not quite sure what we are witnessing, but smart enough to know it might be time to get out for awhile. It's hard to see the social direction improving on the old charts in the coming years with the leadership lacking any real balls. And maybe that's the problem... maybe it's time a woman stood up the plate. I think all would agree the two Mary's have served us well over the past 21 years. Why not in Dil Eireann?
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Not the likes of Mary Harney now, no offense intended. One feels, like the past three, the latter end of the year will be a tough one. But who knows, some wise wizard might appear from somewhere and deal us all a hand we might be able to play with. A lad like Larry Kenny ... but that's another story.

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Dead Peasants
June 22, 2011

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You probably wouldn't believe me if i said some companies insure their employee's against death and pocket handsomely when that happens. The family who have lost the loved one, well they get zip. I wouldn't believe it myself if it were not true. The 'scheme' is called Dead Peasants. Dead would be pretty self explanatory, but Peasants? You can make your own judgment on that one. It's just one of the products available today in the Insurance market. One wonders if Irish rms are involved in such garbage. What do they call their unfortunate employee's who often times work for little or nothing, only to be let-go when the company ships oversees or heaven forbid, goes bust? EC President Jose Manuel Barrosa yesterday gave his support for a 1% reduction in the Bailout for Ireland, but said it was unlikely to be on the table at this weeks meeting of EU Leaders. I've said in the past that I was sure Europe would give us a reduction in the terms at some stage, a kind of show-of-love by them to help new Taoiseach Enda Kenny implement the pain of austerity on his own citizens. One reckons the eventual reduction will coincide with the implementation of more austerity measures this year, when another 3.6 billion in cuts have to be made. A little softener to those blinded by the truth, that Ireland and her citizens have been royally screwed since Brian Cowens government gave the blanket guarantee in 2008. A reduction in the Bailout is not some saving grace for our island because it should not in any decent society have been allowed to happen. The banks should have been left to rot along with those who gamble within their walls. The problem in modern society is everything is spin. The media are as much to blame as the politicians and of course the church won't lose either, offering solace to lost souls in desperate times, so Rome's coffers can swell a little more.
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Polls in today's Irish Independent suggest that Fine Gael are riding the crest of a wave with party support at 42%. Enda's popularity is up to 65%. Fianna Fil remain static at 16% and one hopes it remains that way after 20 years where ill-political practice was the mainstay of their day. Me, well I'm not buying it. Who do they poll on these things? To me it's all media driven drivel, put out there to the people to convince them Ireland is on the up. I doubt many were polled from the middle and lower classes. But then again, this country has long been run for the benet of a few. Capitalism spearheading the ways in which the rich virtually pay no tax. Yet the margins are screwed time and time again. The end result? Best left maybe for a draconian book. Orwell was right about Big Brother. Wait until they regulate the Internet. Capitalism has brought the world to the brink on the back of digital money, stored in computers to be weaved here and there so these criminal bankers - who are the real government - get away with doing what they please. There will be a tipping point and it gets closer by the day. The outcome, well, it's to distressing to think about.
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Ignorance
June 27 2011 ,

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I'm fully convinced by the level of Garda presence on the nations roads over the past few months that the government maybe trying to ne there way out of this recession. I took my car off the road six weeks ago so they won't be getting any of my money, (money? laughs) but the presence is unprecedented and when gures are released in the coming months I suspect it will show record levels. It's unfair to the majority of Gardai who do a ne job in this country to be saying this. At the end of the day, the orders come from the top, but it seems grossly unfair when the likes of people who bankrupted this country remain out of the clutches of the courts, while ordinary people are hounded. This AFTER having their lives ruined. There are certain people above the law in this country, so equality, which this country was founded on, is not in play. It was announced today that the HSE is out of money with another ve months of the year to go. With stories like this bound to become commonplace over the coming years as the willing government pander to Europe and destroy lives with austerity, the honeymoon period for the new government seems to be nally over. Taoiseach Enda Kenny was in Roscommon today where he was met by protestors who wanted answers to questions over the future of their local hospital. He started by saying to them, "There is a plan for Roscommon and there will be a plan for Roscommon.' I'm still scratching my head. Moving to Libya for a few sentences, a court in The Hague today issued arrest warrants for Col. Gadda for crimes against humanity. George W Bush and Tony Blair started an illegal war in Iraq which has claimed in excess of 100,000 lives to date. One wonders why arrest warrants are not out for these pair. I took this from a friends page on Facebook yesterday. He wrote - 'In 2000, Iraq under Saddam announced that they would be trading their oil in Euros as opposed to the dollar. Iraq was subsequently sanctioned and invaded! The day in 2003 when George Bush stood on the USS Lincoln with the banner 'Mission Ac16

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complished' was the day Iraq's oil returned to trading in dollars therefore mission accomplished for the imperialist banker thugs!' Libya is an oil rich nation. The Syrian leader murders his civilians, the Yemen leader the same, the Bahrain leader jails dissidents - yet the world stands by and does nothing. One wonders what the reason is for all this. Why do people not see what is really going on, whether it be here in Ireland or in countries across the globe. Ignorance is the best friend of any government. Together with the media they deect the masses away from all their ill, smothering them with Capitalist dreams that nearly always end in nightmare. French writer Gustave Flaubert once said, 'Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.' I too was ignorant of history for some time. History that you won't nd in the school books. Recession may pass, I may move on, who knows, but the one thing it has provided me with is the time to learn history. What's been happening in the world has been going on for all of history. You search enough you begin to join the dots. It's not exactly nirvana when those dots begin to take form, I can tell you. The quote of the day should belong to the Taoiseach, but perhaps this one is more tting, especially when on the subject of ignorance. "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance" - Socrates I had better shut up now before someone knocks around with the gift of a glass of hemlock. Or maybe not...

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Cowboy Kingdom
June 29, 2011

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It's safe to say abuse of public funds in Ireland has been going on for as long as I can remember. The latest scandal, which disturbingly was laughed around by most of the panel on the Tonight with Vincent Browne show last night involves Independent Michael Healy Ray - who won his fathers seat at the last general election. You might remember his father. Jackie Healy-Rae held the previous government to ransom in return for support for implementing austerity measures on the Irish people. He was one of the 81 men and women who sold our country down the river in return for the EU and IMF bailout. The controversy surrounds Michael Healy-Rae's appearance on a reality TV show in Ireland in 2007. It has come to light that over 3,500 calls were made from Dil Eireann in support of him at a cost of 2,600. The bill was paid by the Irish tax-payer. Both of the Healy-Rae's have denied knowledge of the affair. All things considered it's at the small end of the scale. But imagine an employee running up that sort of phone bill at the expense of an employer and you see where there might be difculties with the employer. Would the employer seek retribution? Depends on the employer I guess, but few would deny the employer might have a case. That's why the casual attitude in which it was passed off on Vincent Browne last night was difcult viewing. These programmes inuence opinion. I've long voiced Vincent Browne as one of the few voices who has outed time and time again the social inequalities in Irish society, but his panels are becoming repetitive and offer mainly spin-driven dribble to their viewers lately. Sad as I am, I used to tune in every night. But I'm tiring of the bullshit being fed to the people. The episode was treated as a light affair, despite the fact that it is front page news in Ireland today. But that's the Irish Establishment for you. One rule for them, another for the rest of us.

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It is pure abuse of power in my opinion, no matter who is involved. The junior Healy-Rae is adamant that he will not be paying back the money as he was not the one that made the calls. But I think hes missing the point. With their hugely inated wages and expense accounts already angering many Irish people and at a time when our services are being cut, impacting on the most venerable in society, this latest shame for politics is unforgivable, but like many before it will be forgiven, and probably forgotten about by the end of the day. It's shameful and nothing short of it and just one more example of the standard of politician in Ireland. Like many developers from the Tiger era the Healy-Rae's are nothing short of cowboys, and as we know from the movies, cowboys rarely lose.
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June, 2011

This ebook series is a comment on issues facing Ireland, covered in real-time against the backdrop of what is really happening in Ireland at that time. The series cover events as they happen through the eyes of the ctional Don Booker, an unemployed recluse as he attempts to write himself through his personal woes and an Ireland in decline. The novel, Booker's World is separate from this series of ebooks, though both worlds do cross at certain juncture as the months go by. An ebook version of the novel will be available soon. All ebooks in this series may be used for reference and may be distributed freely once adhering to Creative Commons License and crediting the author.
With cuts to depression & addiction services being implemented in Ireland, please consider these when making a charitable donation in the future.

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Also In This Series

Independence International Mutha-F*ckrz The Cost of Living Last Daze The Artful Dodger

5 Days in September Planet Bonkers Deathly Quotes 45 November Nightmares Visitors Absurdities Purjurious Times All available to read or download at Forgetful Directions www.fbooker.blogspot.com Chill www.scribd.com/don_booker Dark The Loaded Taoiseach

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Booker's World

www.fbooker.blogspot.com

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Novella Sonny Strange Free Download Here

Contact :jasepub@gmail.com

Noel Farrell 2011

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