Are the gods angry with us? Nobody likes hurricanes or floods, fires or droughts. We offer up prayers to those affected, whether traumatised or killed. Sadly, prayers are completely useless in the face of nature. Nature doesn’t care about gods. It’s chemistry, biology and physics. Nature is what we constructed our god myths around. You…… Continue reading What is climate change?
Category: Politics
So, is Trump the Antichrist that Nostradamus predicted?
Nostradamus, what can you tell us about the 21st century in your plaguey, medieval French dialect? Was Nostradamus right? Our investigation will startle you Is Donald Trump the Antichrist that Nostradamus predicted, and are we now in the ‘End Times’? You could be forgiven for thinking that the end of the world was upon us,…… Continue reading So, is Trump the Antichrist that Nostradamus predicted?
Black and Tans, Ireland’s colonial history, Britain’s war crimes
Varadkar and Flanagan bow to Irish backlash over plan to commemorate British war crimes in Ireland Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar (pictured above, at right), and law and order minister, Charlie Flanagan, both from the Fine Gael political party, have been shamed into dropping a contentious commemoration of the Black and Tans and the Royal…… Continue reading Black and Tans, Ireland’s colonial history, Britain’s war crimes
The 2010s reviewed: 9/11; digital mind control; a global awakening on climate change
2010s events. What happened? Jesus wept. What a decade. While a ton of nasty shit went down in the 2010s, we must resist the temptation to wrap our minds up in binge-watched box sets. We can work harder to understand why things are the way they are, and actively embrace the ideas and actions that…… Continue reading The 2010s reviewed: 9/11; digital mind control; a global awakening on climate change
Guernica by Picasso and climate change
Can art save us from catastrophe? I was in Madrid for the first time in November 2019, just before COP25, and was blown away by the food and the art. Picasso’s Guernica, in the Museo Reina Sofia, was the main event, a stunning depiction of man’s stupidity stripped bare. When the COP25 UN Climate Change…… Continue reading Guernica by Picasso and climate change
Storytellers! Help us tell the world a great story
It’s a story about how the common people of the world come together to fix the mess made by crooked, oil-sodden dictators, soulless corporations that plunder the planet to benefit only shareholders, and politicians that can’t see beyond the next election. The very existence of the human species, and all the other life that shares…… Continue reading Storytellers! Help us tell the world a great story
Celebrate 3 steps forward: Northern Ireland, Canada and Israel
Let’s celebrate every win in this all-out, global conflict between good and evil. We’ve just had three good news stories, from Northern Ireland, Canada and Israel. Northern Ireland legalises marriage equality and women’s reproductive rights. Following the Republic of Ireland’s recently-embraced social liberalism, Northern Ireland at last advances socially. The super-conservative DUP has lost its…… Continue reading Celebrate 3 steps forward: Northern Ireland, Canada and Israel
We can resolve Brexit with an all-Ireland vote on reunification and a united Ireland
Forget the backstop, let’s deal with the elephant in the room: a united Ireland solves all the problems The EU knows it, and so does everybody else. The island of Ireland makes more sense as a single administrative area, with the border disappearing completely, mentally as well as physically. A relic of British colonialism and…… Continue reading We can resolve Brexit with an all-Ireland vote on reunification and a united Ireland
Ireland decriminalises drug possession – a positive step towards cannabis legalisation
You can still go to jail for possessing personal cannabis A new policy approach towards possession of illegal drugs for personal use in Ireland was announced by Minister for Health Simon Harris, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy Catherine Byrne, in Dublin on 2 August 2019. The policy…… Continue reading Ireland decriminalises drug possession – a positive step towards cannabis legalisation
Medical cannabis legalised in Ireland
Ireland to offer medical benefits of cannabis Irish health minister, Simon Harris, made history on Wednesday, 26 June 2019, when he signed medical cannabis into law in Ireland. Patients should start receiving legal cannabis supplies in the autumn. Here’s what the programme looks like: Patients with epilepsy, chemotherapy-derived nausea and multiple sclerosis, who have not…… Continue reading Medical cannabis legalised in Ireland
How Dublin can eliminate traffic congestion, reduce GHG emissions and cut stress
The sad irony of traffic congestion and stress The sad irony of sitting in Dublin’s morning traffic congestion is that we are causing the unnecessary emission of tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) while making ourselves miserable. It’s clearly a lose/lose situation. Just look at the EPA’s (Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency): Improving economic…… Continue reading How Dublin can eliminate traffic congestion, reduce GHG emissions and cut stress
Bees are endangered. 3 things you can do today to help bees – bee a hero!
Bees are endangered and threatened with extinction We all know by now that if the bees die out, our crops won’t get pollinated. And then we all die. Albert Einstein said, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live”, so it is heartening that…… Continue reading Bees are endangered. 3 things you can do today to help bees – bee a hero!
How to stop drug war slaughter in Ireland: Legalise and control cannabis
Ireland a bastion of liberal humanism? You think? You’d think, wouldn’t you, that Ireland is a bastion of liberal humanism, not at all isolated and insular out there on Europe’s western fringe, but a cosmopolitan, secular, fun place to be. You think? Nah. Ireland is still very conservative, unimaginative and a ‘nanny state’. When we…… Continue reading How to stop drug war slaughter in Ireland: Legalise and control cannabis
Top 5 ways to save the European Union
Europe is fucked The importance of the upcoming European Parliament elections from 23 – 26 May 2019 can’t be overstated. Brexit has turned everybody off the conversation about Europe, and caused years of policy paralysis. We should have been making things better for Europe’s citizens, but our unelected EU ‘leaders’ have shown poor leadership abilities,…… Continue reading Top 5 ways to save the European Union
Climate strike Dublin, 15 March 2019
There is no planet B When Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg decided that she couldn’t wait for the adults to take climate change for the existential threat that it is, and started a school strike to draw attention to the issue, did she imagine the scale of what would come? It was a truly impressive butterfly…… Continue reading Climate strike Dublin, 15 March 2019
Ireland, Europe, Britain and Brexit, a history of blood and comedy. And a way to fix it.
Stupid Brexit. And Titanic Brexit is coming on fast, the language around it finally coming to the core truths: war, Hitler, God, blood, the Blitz, the landed gentry and Dad’s Army. It would be funny if it wasn’t so cuntish, the whole, stupid, unnecessary thing. The same can be said of Ireland’s history, especially the…… Continue reading Ireland, Europe, Britain and Brexit, a history of blood and comedy. And a way to fix it.
Vote yes to remove blasphemy from Ireland’s Constitution (Yes we did!)
Peasant Ireland Picture the times: Peasants roamed the shabby streets, gathering the droppings from passing horses and the occasional nuggets of coal that fell from carts, numbed the pain of existence with stout and whiskey. It was a filthy land, the deep wounds left by tribal conflicts still oozing poison. Into the social void, the…… Continue reading Vote yes to remove blasphemy from Ireland’s Constitution (Yes we did!)
The Writer (or, Who wrote the Bible?). A short story by Gary J Byrnes
THE WRITER (or, Who wrote the Bible?) Rome, The Empire – 40 CE Rats feasted on a dead drunk, but out of sight. A heavy evening after the scorched afternoon; late summer, the month of the God Emperor Augustus. The air glowed, smoke from thousands of oil lamps and open fires catching the sun’s fading…… Continue reading The Writer (or, Who wrote the Bible?). A short story by Gary J Byrnes
