RIP the victims of Dunblane, Sandy Hook, Columbine, and everywhere around the world where such tragedies have taken place.

One of the topics which highlights the reason for my political views the most is that of “gun control”.

Time and time again we hear of “mass shootings” in the USA and time and time again the media bring up the so-called “gun control debate”.

I say so-called because while I am in total agreement that there should be a debate, there are those who wish to hijack the nature of it.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is one of the many mantras of the NRA.  Sounds very convincing, doesn’t it.  They have worked very hard and spent lots of cash lobbying the US government to ensure that their industry is not restricted too much by regulations.

But that is my point.

Of course a large proportion of gun crime in the US and indeed everywhere is carried out by illegal weapons.  And of course a line needs to be drawn over gun ownership in that there are those who are perfectly capable of owning them legally and responsibly.

That is exactly the reason why we should be having a debate.  Because government and legislation is something we can control…those who are out to defy such authority and break such laws pose a much bigger and separate problem, but that is in turn a separate debate.

When our own schools become unsafe, we have to turn to those we elect to represent us to do absolutely everything they can to protect them and make sure these tragedies don’t happen again.

Yet still the NRA continues its work on a completely different tack, motivated purely by profits. 

I have said it before and I will say it many more times on this blog…I have no problem with companies making money, but there exist much more important issues out there and protecting our children is definitely one of them, so if the resulting laws mean fewer guns being sold, then so be it.

I do not pretend to have the answer on gun control.  But when the topic is being debated, am I wrong to think all traces of industry-protection need to be left outside the room? JLP

Part 1 – The Right Chemistry

What fascinates me most about science is the fact there there is virtually no limit to the possible experiments they can do, which for me anyway makes pretty much anything appear possible.  Take chemistry for example…all those elements, with so many yet to be discovered.  “All” researchers have to do is keep adding different ones together in different amounts and in different ways and eventually we have cures for things!  Sure, I know they are not all motivated for this and often the focus is on producing profit-making products for pharmaceutical giants, but we can’t deny that often much good is done by their efforts.

Part 2 – Saying one thing and meaning your mother

As I was growing up I didn’t realise that my late grandmother, who was my maternal figure, suffered from bipolar disorder.  All I knew was that it was extremely difficult to ever make her happy.  But like the scientists I mention above, I kept using different combinations of words to try to produce various statements that would snap her our of her ongoing misery.  The only thing that I was missing was a sense that this was nigh-on impossible.  Still, I never gave up right to the very end and I suppose the fact that she lived to the ripe old age of 96 must have meant she felt there was something worth living for.

Part 3 – My Facebook comment

Nowadays I find blogging to be an enjoyable challenge, partly inspired by my time trying to cheer up my grandmother.  Only now, when it comes to political matters, my attempts involve facing up to the barrage of smoke and mirrors put down by the “establishment” as they continue to justify the haves out-owning the have-nots.  To this end I am driven by the notion that there must exist a combination of words that can convince enough people to not only see what they are doing, but also to peacefully reject their shaky premises and, in the spirit of people like Nelson Mandela, stand up for equality in all walks of life.

During the week just gone, in the comments section of a link I shared on Facebook, I responded to a contribution by a Mr James Shott, a conservative blogger who often shows up when I post anything that appears critical of the US Republican party or indeed anything pro-establishment.  My response may not have been a “perfect” cocktail of words, but I’m proud enough that I decided to devote my Sunday morning blog post to it as I reckon it serves as a catch-all for any future dealings I may have with such people online.

As with all our exchanges Mr S, what concerns me most are not the obvious holes in your argument, but more the fact that you must surely be well aware of them yourself. This is why I try not engage as much anymore as it will inevitably lead to a lengthy series of posts to produce the perception of stalemate which I believe you & other conservative commentators seek.

His reply : “I see things have not changed in Fantasyland. Have a good one, Mr. P!”  If a place where people seek to be considered equals is considered Fantasyland then I am more than happy to call it that.

RIP Anna Mary Kilroy Lee & Nelson Mandela

JLP

 

It could be seen as incredibly cynical & “Scrooge-like” to find fault with RTE’s Late Late Toy Show, wouldn’t it?  If I did a blog post giving out about it then I must have a problem with children being happy, right?

Well, I don’t accept that premise.  And that’s kind of the overall theme of this blog.

The kids are great and make the show what it is, even if they are up way past their bedtime.  Ryan Tubridy is an absolutely awful presenter but even he doesn’t bother me that much on the show.

I don’t see what’s wrong with pointing out what underpins the show…it is a vehicle for companies who are trying to cash in at this time of year and with the show airing before the end of November, it piles extra pressure on parents who are worried enough about affording Christmas as it is.

And the sight of Tubridy chucking toys out into the crowd actually made me a little sick to my stomach, making the studio audience, all there for the freebies as it was, greedily scramble to grab even more like ducks paddling after crusts of bread up in the park.

This year I did like the kid who did the storytelling who introduced me to the phrase ; “as welcome as a dhrop of holy wather in the devil’s whishkey!”

I am far from a scrooge but I just hope folks remember that the amount of enjoyment their kids get out of Christmas is anything but proportional to the amount of money they spend.  If it stresses out Mommy & Daddy it will only have the opposite effect.

Thankfully we’re ok from a personal standpoint, but many are not.  Donating to charity is a good way to assuage our conscience but de-pressurising the festive season is a much greater challenge. JLP

Setting aside Sunday mornings for my personal blog seemed like a good idea at the time, but I may have to re-think if I want to keep things ticking over here.

For one thing, most of Leinster’s home matches are on Saturdays, which means in turn means I have a few pints, which in turn means I don’t feel like being creative the following morning.

For another, with all the writing & editing & such I have to do for the website during the week, other online thing get left to one side.  For example…I get invites all the time to play rugby tipping games like SuperBru but although the invitees can be forgiven for assuming I’d be well up to the task, I’m such a competitive person that I just can’t enter those comps without taking a fair amount of time to make my proper choices so more often than not I decline.

Most of all I don’t get the chance to write long emails any more, and when my mother contacted me on Friday night asking me to explain the recent US government shutdown. I had to set aside my Sunday morning writing time to doing it.  So to kill two birds with one stone, I will replicate my email to stand as my latest post on this blog, as I reckon it suits the topic.

***

As I see it, Pres Obama has attempted to roll out his Affordable Care Act
since Day 1 of his presidency, while the Republicans, who of course largely
represent the money behind the pharmaceutical giants, HMOs etc, have done
absolutely everything in their power to resist. This power is limited in
the executive branch but with their media arm Fox News trash-talking the
president 24/7 and their making full use of filibuster rules in the Senate,
on top of their majority in the House, they were still able to do quite a
bit of damage.

Pres Obama being the conciliatory chap he is has offered compromise after
compromise and when he finally did manage to push through the bill into law,
almost 5 years and one re-election later, it was considerably watered down.
Think this was going to stop the GOP? Nah. Fox News kept the “Obamacare
bad” mantra going, and in Congress the only question was where they saw the
line when it came their resistance. I think October 1 2013 was the day the
act was to officially become law, covering up to something like 3million
previosuly uninsured Americans (not sure of the figure but thanks to the
watering down it was less than originally intended).

So clearly on orders from their fat-cat overlords the Republican
congressfolk, fronted by House Maj leader John Boehner but led mostly by the
uber-wacko “Tea Party”, took the federal budget hostage hoping Obama would
blink. All of a sudden the saga was resembling a plot-line from The West
Wing, and thankfully Obama stood strong much as the fictional President
Bartlet had.

All this time the 24-hour news media were loving it, painting the government
shutdown as some kind of “armageddon”. Of course it wasn’t pretty when it
happened, but luckily Obama saw it as worthwhile to show up his opponents’
shenanigans. The GOP’s PR tactics were laughable, staging “mock meetings”
for the press sitting at a table with empty chairs on the other side trying
to make it look as though it was Obama who wasn’t willing to compromise.

Eventually they had to back down and re-open the government services and it
hit the Republicans hard, and from what I’m hearing it seems they’re
allowing the Tea Party take the bulk of the fall-out so ironically they
could find themselves tossed overboard. However, just how hard it will hit
them at the ballot box remains to be seen because the congressfolk they had
to the forefront on this issue are mostly in safe conservative (often
gerry-mandered) districts and with a year until the mid-terms there’s more
than enough time for the Democrats to make their own mess to even things up
once more.

Now I could have a lot of this wrong but I reckon I have the gist. And I
don’t think President Obama is a saint by any means, but when it comes to
this particular issue he did himself proud IMO. Of course now we have the
whole Obamacare “online registration SNAFU” saga which doesn’t help matters
but from what I understand when Massachusetts rolled out the same system
(ironically under Romney) they had similar teething troubles in the early
days.

it was actually good to write about something other than rugby for a change!
Hope it filled you in. I watch pretty much every episode of both The Daily
Show & Colbert Report and recently added The Rachel Maddow Show (which is
available as a free podcast by the way) so although it may have what the GOP
call a “liberal elite media bias” it still gives a good idea of what’s going
on.

Jeff

 

In the beginning, there was Adam and Eve.  Some say. Others say there were homos who gradually became erectus.

Looks like this post is either going to be pretty deep and philosophical or full of puerile innuendos doesn’t it?  Well I guess it’s more of the former, but I like to try and throw the odd double entendre & joke in to keep things interesting.

Finally I’m going to use my Sunday morning ramble to explain why I have called this “new” blog of mine “Clearing The Premises”.

Whether you are a creationist or an evolutionist, your version of events has one thing in common with your nemesis…there existed a time when human beings were socially equal.

And whether that time lasted an époque or just a millisecond before Adam looked over to Eve and said “I’m hungry – when’s dinner?” isn’t important, at least for the purposes of this post.

The fact remains the same…from that time of equality, one group of humans asserted themselves by identifying all the necessary stuff like food and the nice shiny stuff like diamonds and making sure they had it before anyone else.

To put it another way, that group of humans “established” themselves as the dominant force.  This is why my favourite word to describe the rich today is “establishment”.

You probably think I’m painting a simple picture of the rich as a some kind of “evil empire”.  Think again.

I’m not saying that when some people established themselves it was out of some kind of demonic intent.  I think it was because what they did falls under the heading of what we call “human nature”.  It’s there, I want it, I’d better get it before someone else does.  And once I have it, I’d better make sure nobody takes it.  It’s not a nice way of looking at it, but it certainly is an understandable one.

And so mankind evolved socially over the centuries with a clear partition between those who had and those who had not, and of all the things which divide us as a species, this is the most fundamental as far as I’m concerned.  Not countries, not races, not genders, not sexuality…none of that matters more than the basic distribution of wealth and resources on this planet among the humans inhabiting it.

Which brings us to the way we are governed.  Most countries have some kind of “democracy”, which means for the most part people who want to be part of that process have to first align themselves to a group of like-minded people.  And so we have the realm of “politics”, which I roughly define as “the argument over who does a job which gets in the way of the job being done”.

As with many complicated things, we do our best to break them down to their most basic principles and so when it comes to politics, we have the terms “left” and “right” to distinguish between the two “ends” of the political spectrum.

I completely, totally, utterly, reject this labelling of left and right because in my view it is based on a premise which is flimsy at best.

The group of people we call the “establishment” have gone to great lengths over the years to conserve the status quo they went to great lengths to, well, establish.   This is why we also call them “conservatives”.  Most of these lengths involve buying off people to protect them, but another way has been to seize control of the debate over government.

By entrenching themselves behind a political movement, and by using the almost unlimited resources at their disposal, the establishment have been able to create this illusion of “left” and “right” as the only two points on the political spectrum.

For me, the reality is that political thought cannot be represented by a straight line.  It is better served by a three-dimensional space, let’s say a “universe”, of opinion. 

And what we call “conservatism” is like a single planet in that universe.  Sure, it is one with a very strong gravitational pull, because with it’s single-minded outlook on life with a (mostly simplistic and/or unfounded) answer offered for more or less every question, there are many who are willing to go there without having to look out to the rest of the vast expanse of the universe and having to decide on where to land.

The conservative planet is not an entirely bad place – but all I am saying is that before we can progress as a society we must first see things as they are rather than how we we have been taught to perceive them.

For whatever way they want to spin the argument, or however many “poor” people the rich want to buy over to their “side”, the fact remains that the “establishment” represents a tiny minority of the human beings on this planet.  The “Occupy Wall Street” movement was considered a failure, and in many ways it was, but it did bring forward the notion of the “1%”, which is one of the most powerful ways of depicting the establishment  in recent times.  The actual figure may not be accurate, but the gist of the proportions is certainly spot-on.

So given that the actual people fully represented by the conservative movement are a small amount of the human race, why do we afford them as much as HALF of the space on the political spectrum by labelling them as the “right”?

It is a premise entirely without grounds. 

All the things we need to be discussing…whether it is health, education, or anything to do with government, needs to be just that – DISCUSSED.  With all points taken into consideration.  But while we try to have that discussion, we have the conservative movement hijacking it and making sure that whatever is being discussed, the “interests” of big business are put to the fore.

Yes, I know that last sentence makes it look like I am “anti-business”.  In fact, that is probably exactly what a typical conservative reader would point out, even though that is not what I said.

And by labelling me with all the names the conservative movement have used over the years for those who don’t agree with them – “liberal”, “leftie”, “tree-hugger”, “socialist” – they further entrench themselves in this perception that they occupy half the space in the overall argument.

All I want to do with this blog is to claim that space back and put them in their place.

For the true division between those who accept the establishment and those who seek equality-based reform cannot be represented by “left” and “right”.  Or even by “us” and “them”.

The society I want to live in is one where everyone has a place and is welcome before we know ANYTHING about them.  Yes, even those I call “pro-establishment” belong as much as anyone else.

And what I want to do with this blog every Sunday morning is explore the stuff that is put out there to distort that reality.  Or to put it another way, I want to clear the premises.

One last thing – no matter how accurate it may be, “establishment” really is a clunky, non-sexy way to describe the conservative movement, and although “1%” is brilliant it had the shine taken off it by the failings of OWS.  Which is why I am eternally grateful to Dewey Finn in School of Rock – he may not have been the first to coin “the man” but he certainly did give it life.

Hopefully I’ll see you back here on future Sundays when I will stick it to the man some more. JLP

I’m getting close to a stage where I can fully explain the reasons for my “Clearing The Premises” title, but not before I give a bit of background to my (possibly warped) philosophy.  This week I’m dealing with a particular pet peeve of mine.

No doubt the net result of having what we consider to be “trust issues” is bad.  At some stage we have to allow ourselves to have at least a little faith in those around us otherwise there would be no point in getting out of bed in the morning, assuming of course you had enough trust in the bed manufacturers to get into the thing in the first place.

But in this blog post I wish to do mankind and valuable service by reclaiming the proper definition of the term “conspiracy theory”.

As the great Dr House often said, (which of course means it must be true) “everybody lies”.  It is a fact of life.  Our inability as a race to actually read people’s thoughts has made it engrained in our DNA to try and deceive people, whether it be to swindle enormous amounts of cash or just to make people think their shoe is untied so they can look down.

And once the nature of a lie is both shared and agreed upon with another person, it becomes a conspiracy.  The word doesn’t have to mean something of Watergate proportions.

Naturally, as with every topic you care to discuss, there are extremes.  When it comes to trust, at one end you have people who are willing to put their full faith into everything they are told, while at the other, you have those who think their microwave is trying to convince them to worship the devil.

Somehow over the course of time, the term “conspiracy theory” has come to mean something that must indicate you are leaning towards the latter, “tin-foil hat” category.  “Ah, don’t be silly, that’s just a conspiracy theory” and thus the argument is over, next topic please.

To those who use it that way I ask first – “are you suggesting there is no such thing as a conspiracy?”  And if they are in any way reasonable, they will say no.

Fine – so we agree conspiracies do exist.  Therefore…how else can we uncover the important ones without first having a theory about it?

I believe conspiracy theories are more important than an American Express card…we should NEVER leave home without them.   Take advertising….every single marketing strategy is a glorified conspiracy when you think of it.   Well, ok, every marketing strategy except for the ones which involve telling you “We want to profit handsomely from this particular item so we would like you to buy it”.  I’ll gladly let those PR campaigns off the hook.

Does that make me a pessimist?  Does that make me anti-business?  Does that mean I have no faith in mankind?  Of course not.  And if you suggest I do, then you go straight on my conspiracy theory checklist.

If we accept there are conspiracies, we therefore must have theories.  And they will remain theories until they are proven.  What’s more, we have an entire profession which is meant to have at its very core the ability to both form and properly investigate conspiracy theories.

The way the media is meant to work is stated in its actual name.  We have the establishment in various guises spinning their actions to the public…reporters are meant to act as a “medium” and use “journalism” to cut through that spin and present us with what is really going on.   However the establishment, being what they are, have been known to influence the media to ignore the journalism part and instead simply re-hash the spin.  Not ALL media fall into this category of course, but with news organisations like Fox & the Wall Street Journal in the US and NewsTalk here on Irish shores, we all know who they are.  Yet they still pedal their re-hashed spin and attempt to pass it off as news, so therefore they must reckon that it works.

All I’m saying is that it is up to us to be ready for it, and that there’s no harm at all at keeping at the back of your mind a “if it looks too good to be true it probably is” mentality.  You don’t have to assume everyone is the devil in disguise, but it doesn’t hurt to keep the eye out for the odd protruding triangular tail, because you will find them.

So to summarize, yes, I have a theory that there is a conspiracy (of sorts) to misuse the term “conspiracy theory”.  And it is a theory i will hold until the men in the white coats, no doubt tipped off by several treasonous kitchen appliances, come to take me away. JLP

Sorry I haven’t posted the past few weeks…we’re well into rugby season and when I go to Saturday matches I have pints…and Saturday evening pints makes Sunday morning blogging very difficult!

I just want have a brief ramble about a couple of recent events..the government shutdown in the USA and the 2014 Budget announcement here in Ireland.  Both feature themes which will be integral to this blog.

In many ways, you can’t blame someone for defending their own turf.  We have all done it.  You don’t need a law degree to realise that if you are representing someone else, even if they have done wrong it’s up to you to do all you can to maximise the return they get from the powers that be.

In the USA, everyone knows that the Republican party represent big business.  The identity of those actually pulling the strings may be obscured by complex legal loopholes but I find the term “fat-cats” works fine.  And their front men in Washington did an excellent job these past few weeks…provided their job was to increase the popularity of the Democrats, that is.

To hear those Tea Party congressmen and women whinge about Obamacare is really laughable.  Every time they talk about it their opening sentence is something like : “Of course it’s a disaster” and based on that totally groundless premise they go on to make their “argument”.  And also, in the most telling of ironies, they claim that they are speaking on behalf of “the American people”.

If those American people truly believe the GOP’s motives are based on anything other than the Fat cats’ greed, then they are stupid and deserve everything they get.  The US medical “system” has been a gravy train for insurance & pharmaceutical companies for years to the detriment of the most basic of necessities…citizens receiving basic care.  It needed to be stopped, and though Obamacare is far from ideal, it certainly ensures a lot more Americans are covered than there were before.

Then we have the budget here.  Of course when the Finance Department is compiling its plans you know every lobby group in the country is going to make its case.  You also know that whatever the final announcement by the minister, none of them are going to be happy, or at least they won’t SAY they’re happy for if they do, they’re afraid of being overlooked the following year.

But for the love of all that’s holy…outside those lobby groups, is there any chance SOMEone can be objective when it comes to Budget time?

EVERYONE knew there would be cuts.  They had to come from somewhere.  If it wasn’t the bereavement grant, it would have been something else.  If it wasn’t the “old reliables” fags & booze, it would have been something else.   Yet all the media does is find out who represents those who were hurt the worst and give them free reign to make it sound like the government has just unleashed the apocalypse on their constituency.

And with this current Irish government there is an added bit of insanity to the complaints.  To be clear…we have currently in power a merger between an insanely pro-business party Fine Gael and an insanely pro-union one, the Labour Party.

Everyone who whines about the budget harks back to their respective election manifestos in 2011.  Well if these people were paying that much attention to that campaign they will know that the two parties ran ON SEPARATE PLATFORMS.  So to use “broken promises” as a stick to beat them either shows a hidden agenda or an incredible amount of stupidity. 

The two parties came together and produced a Programme for Government and it is this, and nothing else, on wish they should be judged when it comes to promises.  That will never be enough for the Talking Heads on the panel shows I fear.

Remember…if someone is directly affected by cuts or even Obamacare, I’m not saying they don’t have a right to complain.  Things like the Joe Duffy Show act as a kind of “Victim Impact Statement” for such people, a chance to vent although they know nothing can really be done to change anything.

It’s the so-called “pundits” that annoy me.  we look over to the USA and laugh at FoxNews but over here things are getting just as bad with the likes of NewsTalk which over the years has virtually become what i call “BlueShirtFM” with corporate shills like Shane Colman, Chris Donoghue and Jonathan Healy being elevated to lofty broadcast status because they are happy to trot out the latest tripe from the Denis O’Brien & Michael O’Leary spin factory.  And it’s not as though RTE are much better with their leaning towards Fianna Fáil.

There has to be lobby groups.  There has to be political parties.  All I wish is that we could be given a chance to appreciate those facts and factor their agendas into our discussions rather than being expected to parrot their own soundbites back to them all the time.

Time to get on with my Sunday. JLP

Learned a new word today.  It looks like it has something to do with photography, but actually means the practise of being governed by just the one legislative chamber.

I had intended to kick off my new blog with a series of posts outlining my general outlook on the subject of government, but not surprisingly there’s actual stuff going on which I can’t ignore, and in many ways by discussing them I will probably give a sense of my overall outlook anyway.

First up we have a referendum here in Ireland this coming Friday.  If the vote is Yes, then there will no longer be a Seanad (Irish for Senate) after the next general election.

I have to say, the way this campaign is being presented to the people truly scares me.

Overall, I try to hold back when it comes to criticising this Fine Gael/Labour coalition.  There’s no need for me to, since everybody else does it anyway.  Because it represents the coming together of two parties from opposite ends of the so-called “spectrum”, the fact that they need to compromise in order to co-exist means that nobody is ever going to be totally happy with the stuff they come up with.  Austerity measures too tough means Labour have sold out.  Abortion legislation means Fine Gael have sold out. 

Despite the fact that most of the people making these claims are well educated grown-ups who know full well about the parties’ need to give and take on different issues, they still put it to the public in the darkest, most simplistic terms.

The same goes with this referendum.

The Seanad as it exists in Ireland today is beyond a joke.  There is no question something needs to be done.  Basically it’s a halfway house for politicians who lose their Dáil seats yet still want to keep up their continuous Oireachtas service and thus qualify for a nice fat pension.  Time after time I am amazed how everyone accepts it when a particular politician fails to get elected yet miraculously winds up in the Senate.  Mary O’Rourke and Ivana Bacik are just two examples of this from recent times.  I have nothing fundamentally against any of them, but it seems to make the most basic of common sense that if they lost an election then they shouldn’t receive payment for a representative position.

Having said that, I am totally in favour of having two legislative bodies.  “Power corrupts – absolute power corrupts absolutely” is an expression which rings true.  Leaving the responsibility of law-making to just the one chamber which is under Government control is a dangerous thing.  That doesn’t mean I have no trust in Government.  There needs to be one, and they have a serious job to do. 

But when they propose new legislation, if there is just the one chamber to examine and debate it, it could pass into law without proper scrutiny, and having it passed on to a Senate at least allows for this.

Does that mean this is what happens now?  Of course not.  As many as ELEVEN of the senators are appointed by the Taoiseach himself, and that’s more than enough to ensure that they are never going to even put an amber light up on his plans, let alone a red.

So if they’re so useless, why don’t we just get rid of them?  In this time of austerity, surely we’d save the exchequer a fortune?

I have another quote with the word “absolute”, and although it may carry less credibility given the source, I believe it works in this case.  In the third “prequel” of the Star Wars saga Revenge of the Sith, during the final battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Darth Vader,  the latter says to his former master : “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy”, to which Ewan McGregor replies : “Only the Sith deals in absolutes”.

In other words, when someone brings an argument to its furthest extremes, there must surely be something sinister at play.  Let’s have a look at how the government are putting forward this referendum.

“Abolish The Seanad” – “Fewer Politicians” – “Save The Country A Fortune”, all themes used to make it sound like a no-brainer.  Only that’s what it would be, but not in a good way.

Why oh why oh why are we presented with only two alternatives?  Abolish it altogether or continue as we are?  Apparently if a “No” vote is passed there are TDs like Shane Ross with legislation ready to put to the house that deals with reform, but we’re hearing feck all about it.  If there’s any decision that seems like a “no-brainer” to me, it would be that of reforming the system.

For example…one of the Government’s assertions is that abolition means we save money.  There are currently 166 TDs and 60 senators.  Instead of abolishing the Seanad altogether, why don’t we make that 166 figure represent the Dail PLUS the Seanad?  Maybe 140 TDs and 26 senators, one elected from each county?  That’s just a suggestion – there could be countless others.  But they are not being allowed into the debate.  Since it is a referendum, the only options we have are “Yes” and “No”.  And the media will be willing participants in this illusion…they love nothing more than two distinct sides to represent.

Abolishing the Senate would leave the next Government of this country in pretty much absolute power.  Sure, the “checking and balancing” will be done by committees, but these will either be made up of TDs (with a composition leaning towards the cabinet) or worse, unelected appointees.  So effectively the committee structure will become a less accountable reincarnation of the Senate.  No thank you.

We should be debating reform not abolition, and it’s not even up for debate.  In fact, nothing is, as the Taoiseach won’t debate.  And the scariest thing of all is that their “absolute” strategy seems to be working.  Paddy Power have a Yes vote as a virtual certainty at 1/4, and all with a turnout around the woeful 38% mark.

I see two frightening scenarios down the line after a Yes vote…one where this same Fine Gael/Labour government is retained at the next general election, and although they will probably find their majority slashed because of austerity and what-not, their effective power will remain the same as they can get “stuff” done more quickly.

Alternatively we have what I consider to be the real doomsday scenario whereby the Kenny/Gilmore gambit doesn’t pay off and Fianna Fáil find themselves in power once again, albeit with a splintered coalition of independents and yes, even Sinn Féin.  And I have a funny feeling that in this case, even though Micheál Martin is in the “No” camp in this referendum campaign, he wouldn’t exactly complain about being Taoiseach without a pesky Senate being a fly in his ointment.

We need to get our houses in order, and abolishing one will not do that.  I am ABSOLUTELY voting No. JLP

Welcome to the official launch of my new blog, Clearing The Premises.

I chose this particular date a while ago, for three reasons…first, because it is the 9-year anniversary of my first ever blog post, second because it falls on a Sunday, which will be the best day for me to write on it, and finally because it gave me the time to psyche myself up to get back into blogging about life, the universe and everything.

As it turns out, there’s another milestone to celebrate this weekend, as on Friday my first substantial cheque for blogging arrived in the post.  Yes, that’s right, I’m actually being paid to do it now!  A six-month sponsorship deal for my site HarpinOnRugby won’t be something to retire on, but it certainly is something I would never have envisaged when I embarked on this journey in the blogosphere, and hopefully it is a sign of better things to come.

I have to say the sports blog has done wonders for my writing, since the one thing I needed was discipline, and when your subject matter is a particular team, their schedule forces you to produce content on a regular basis, at least it does if you expect to be noticed and make money!

But does this mean I want to write about rugby and nothing else for the rest of by cyber-existence?  Hell, no.

I’ve often tried to work out just what it was that fuelled my lifelong passion for sports of many differing codes.  When it comes to rugby I had no choice but to get a grounding in it because the school I went to brainwashes you 24/7; then Leinster Rugby came along to provide the first real dose of regular, week-in,week-out top-flight action in any code in the 36 years I have lived on this island.  So that association was easy to make.

Still though, I’m fond of other sports, soccer especially, with Tottenham Hotspur taking most of my attention even though they hail from London (shortly after I moved to Ireland aged 8 they won a match 9-0 and a player called Colin Lee, which is my mother’s maiden name, was in the headlines for scoring four goals so thus they were my choice).   And although I have been known to find fault with the GAA I have excellent credentials as a fair-weather fan, today being no exception as the Dubs face Mayo for the coveted Sam Maguire All-Ireland Cup.

So while I’m not so mad about sports that I’d bet on the proverbial two flies running up a wall, it does play a large part of my life and it has taken me a long time to realise that it’s nothing to be ashamed of.  In some ways, it’s kind of like a “soap opera for guys” (though yes, I know, girls love it too just as much!!!) in that it’s not so much about who wins what but more about the individuals involved in the race to bring about those victories.

But there’s another reason I watch sports, and that is to serve as a distraction from the harsh realities of life.  From the seemingly never-ending news of shootings, wars, disasters and austerity.  I don’t want to pretend it isn’t there, I know it always is.  But once in a while it’s nice to be able to consume some media in such a way that you can be entertained without having to be reminded of all that stuff for an hour or so, and for me anyway, sport provides that.  Once I can tune out all the advertising that is…

Being distracted by the sports is all very well, but once in a while I need to be able to face those realities head on and try to make sense of them.  And writing is the best way I can do just that.  So here we have this blog, and hopefully for the foreseeable future I will be able to churn out some thoughts on subjects that don’t involve new scrum laws and why Brian O’Driscoll wasn’t picked for the 3rd Lions test.

Why have I chosen the name “Clearing The Premises”?  Funny I should pretend that you asked.

Many people vote the way they do because of their parents.  Some tow the line and vote the same way, others rebel and do the opposite.  Either way it’s good to at least have a grounding, though I suppose in many ways I should be grateful to my grandparents who raised me in that apart from wishing me to be a devout Catholic, they never really tried to influence me in any way to lean a particular way politically.  In fact, when I finally cared enough to ask them what way they voted in American elections, I was actually surprised to learn that it was Democrat not Republican (I suppose fact that my grandfather was a schoolteacher by profession should have been a clue but I never really gave it any real thought before I turned 30).

This means that I had no real foundation on which to work out how I saw the world, and it took me over 40 years for a pattern to properly emerge…in other words, I really don’t think I could have embarked on a blog like this before now.

One thing is for sure…as much as we’re led to believe that politics is similar to sports in that before you show interest you much choose a particular “team”, I am constantly finding evidence to the contrary.  Take the upcoming referendum here in Ireland on abolishing the Seanad.  The political party on this island that has consistently reflected my opinions has been the Labour party, yet they are for a “Yes” vote, while I am vehemently in the “No” camp, which in the most telling of ironies, has the “nation-wrecking” Fianna Fáil as its only main advocate.

Besides…I don’t like talking about “politics”.  That word represents the argument over who gets to do the job.  I’d much rather talk about the job itself.   The topic should be titled “government”, with “politics” as a mere subset.

So the way I see things, we’re in the wrong neighbourhood even before we start talking about how we’re governed.  And the endless droning on of the talking heads in the media seems to serve little purpose other than to keep our thinking firmly entrenched in that neighbourhood.

With this blog, I want to be able to share with you my thoughts on how I think the world is, not how I feel I should be seeing it.  In other words, I want to challenge, or for the sake of my little pun clear, the premises laid out before me.

Every Sunday morning when I am able, I will embark on a ramble similar to this one.  As much as I enjoy the rugby stuff, it will do me good to regularly pound these keys for a while on something else.  Whether you join me on this journey or not is of course up to you.  But I have TONS to get off my chest, so it will be here regardless. JLP

One thing is for sure….this “Clearing The Premises” blog will be up and running with regular posts before the end of the year.

My problem is that I also run another site, one which is actually making me money, so I guess I can be forgiven for making that a priority.

But I do also want to write about topics other than rugby & sport, and here is the place to do that.

I am resigned to the fact that I am an OCD writer.  If I have no structure, I can’t produce.  Thankfully rugby has a new match to writeup every week so the schedule is set for me.  As for the rest of life, well, that’s a tad more complicated, so I have to create my own structure.

This blog will resume on Sunday, September 22, 2013, and there will be at the very least one post every Sunday that follows for the foreseeable future.

There, I’ve said it.  Now I have to do it.  See you then.