Have a great day now

Slan

Very droll. I never ‘throw a wobbly’. I script and sculpt the Wobble before pressing the Moon-launch ‘send’ button. But interesting reaction, so thanks. And a diverting detour through the minefield of racism and linguistic political correctness. Now, let’s all get back to the real issues. How about Irish milk prices?

Can’t be arsed to find the names in this thread, but what is this whack-job ranting about America? Saying America is ‘evil’ because of egregious cultural infractions such as Bratz dolls makes as much sense as saying Germany is ‘evil’ because it hosted the Nazis. Nonsense. I could write a book on how much America has enriched my life. Someday I probably will. But not here.

Behind these laments is a despairing realisation that Ireland has changed irrevocably on all levels and there‘s no going back. Ever. Cultural and economic post-modernity is not a pick’n’mix stand in the sweetshop. If you move in three generations from an agricultural society to a post-modern capitalist one, there’s gonna be ructions. That’s one of the many reasons why Ireland fascinates me. So bewailing and blaming America is just a waste of bile. Focus optimistically on Ireland. Bury the nostalgia. How can Ireland safely get through this? How can it fit into Obama’s big strategic plan?

America is no more or less troubled by all this than Ireland, Britain, Germany or China. This is global.

:-)

Its good to come here every now and again, just for the comedy value alone never mind the economic discussions. Maybe that’s what we can export, comedians – Tommy Tiernan, the chaps from The Panel, etc, we seem to be good at laughing at ourselves. If we can bottle or even patent it (;-) ) we could be on to a winner maybe? I hear there are a bunch of comedians that gather in a place known as Leinster House ….. or even D4.

Btw, the Moon does wobble, as in libration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_libration_with_phase2.gif

What country, and people, aren’t a bit kooky, a bit weird, at times? We all are, everyone. Some seem to work better in this decade, and less well in another. Some are more blessed, with raw materials and geography, for example, than others. Everyone country has it’s strengths and weaknesses. I eat my eggs pointy end up.

At times of stress, such as now, the temptation, as we have all read, is to start pointing the finger, and pulling up the drawbridge.
The Hanseatic League made northern and western Europe the centre of an astonishing artistic and scientific flowering. It doesn’t matter where in history you look – from the shenanigans of Balkans in the early 20th Century, to the Hittite Foreign Office Archive – cessation of trade damages everyone.

All around we can feel this tension building: Bring the jobs home; Devalue, Leave the Euro; and so on – “Look after number 1″, in fact.

It might seem attractive, and in the waxing and waning of things it might be necessary to fiddle with relations between countries, but go the nationalism route and it is doomed to fail. Although it is the next predicted step, it will work no better than bailouts and stimuli, and will be more generally damaging. Let us be aware, and just not go there.

Anyway, uniforms (on men) do absolutely nothing for me.

Keep it Country Folks.

Mooney should perhaps be a little less sensitive before he throws……you guessed it…a Wobbly.