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international / sci-tech Monday February 20, 2006 - 03:51 by Seán Ryan
A look at the recent work of SETI. The creationism debate is rekindled by scientists enlisting the clergy in the US to keep God out of classrooms. A new version of creationism is discussed with regard to education and commercial media. The incompleteness of evolution is examined. The interesting theory of Panspermia is shown to be a likely addition to the theory of evolution. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-capitalism Sunday February 19, 2006 - 22:37 by hs
An interesting thesis by Alan Woods on the future of class struggle on a world basis. Alan Woods was a leading member of the British militant tendency who split with the grouping over it's decision to break with the labour party and form the English and Welsh Socialist Party and Scottish Militant Labour, forerunner to the Scottish Socialist Party. He believes socialists should remain inside the labour party as it is the only vehicle to create change, even with the emptying out of the party under Blair. Although most activists would have little time for Blair's new Labour Wood's thesis is well researched and makes very interesting reading. Although personally I would fundamentally disagree with much of Woods ideas, especially those on the modern social democratic parties his thesis is an excellent basis for a debate on europe, china the usa and more. I think most would agree that the entering of China into the capitalist world market should have a few suprises along the way. And his comments on the Italian situation also makes interesting reading. hs ... read full story / add a comment
national / worker & community struggles and protests Sunday February 19, 2006 - 16:41 by Sean Crudden
 1 comment (last - sunday february 19, 2006 - 17:58)
What is the Sunday Independent cribbing about in connection with recent appointment by Bertie Ahern of Mary Wallace as a Minister of State? ... read full story / add a comment 
dublin / crime and justice Saturday February 18, 2006 - 22:23 by Katie mcDermott
2 comments (last - sunday march 12, 2006 - 13:19)  1 image
The 25th anniversary of the Stardust conflagration was chosen to open a new pub on the site of what was perhaps Irelands most horrific tragedy in recent times. ... read full story / add a comment
international / worker & community struggles and protests Friday February 17, 2006 - 13:27 by jac
For all they laugh, they are wrong. It is possible to see, during the past 25 years in at least this country, a movement towards a new settlement in politics. This movement has continued regardless of who has occupied which office, and regardless of what party has won which election. It is clear that the ruling class - or that loose coalition of politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, educators, and media and business people who derive wealth and power and status from an enlarged and active state - wants an end of liberal democracy. The desired new settlement is one in which those at the top or with the right connections can enjoy the most fabulous wealth and status, and in which their enjoyment of these can never again be challenged from below. We, the ordinary people, are to be stripped of our constitutional rights - no freedom of speech, no personal or financial privacy, no procedural safeguards in the criminal law. We are to be taxed and regulated to what counts in our own culture as the edge of the breadline. This is on the one hand to provide incomes for clients of the ruling class, and on the other to deprive us of the leisure that might allow us to understand our situation, and of the confidence that might allow us to challenge it. In any event, every organ of the ruling class is at work on promoting ideologies of boundless submission to the new settlement. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday February 17, 2006 - 06:44 by anon
2 comments (last - wednesday march 15, 2006 - 01:08)
The DVD containing the material includes a June 6, 2004, CID investigation report written by Special Agent James E. Seigmund. That report includes the following summary of the material included: "A review of all the computer media submitted to this office revealed a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts." ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday February 16, 2006 - 14:19 by MichaelY
12 comments (last - saturday february 25, 2006 - 18:06)
Brace yourself for a big new war. And start workig now to prevent it. ... read full story / add a comment
national / public consultation / irish social forum Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 23:27 by Liam Mullen
2 comments (last - saturday february 18, 2006 - 15:45)
Perhaps, yes! However, if Ireland is to establish a press council we should look elsewhere to see what lessons could be learned from such an endeavour. The British press introduced this form of self-regulation in 1953, but Commissions set up to examine the effectiveness of the council were critical. In their book Power without Responsibility, Curran and Seaton, argue that the council should “embody and promote a professional culture among journalists.” This would be the ideal, but the reality has proved somewhat different. The press council has been criticised by a number of Commissions, which threatened “government legislation,” and brought much needed “reforms”. In 1977, the Commission imposed sweeping changes, which led to further reforms from 1989 to 1990. A new “code of conduct for journalists” was proposed, but the Calcutt Committee recommended that the press council be disbanded and replaced with a more effective body. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 21:32 by Liam Mullen
1 comment (last - thursday february 16, 2006 - 11:26)
When Ireland introduced the Freedom of Information Act in 1998, it was envisaged that a period of greater transparency would ensue. Revelations of corruption arising from the Beef Tribunal, and the subsequent Flood, McCracken and Moriarty tribunals, helped push Freedom of Information on to a political agenda that seemed to promise more openness, but which has failed to materialise. Today it is widely recognised that Ireland has some of the more draconian rules on releasing documents into the public domain, and that Freedom of Information is tied up in mindless bureaucracy and red-tape. Information sought may in some cases cost the recipient up to 400 Euros. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 18:23 by Liam Mullen
3 comments (last - thursday february 26, 2009 - 16:59)
INTRODUCTION. Journalism, in my opinion, is driven by big business needs. Nowhere is this more evident than in the power of advertising. Editors need to strike a balance between what hard news they can report, and soft news can often be used in conjunction with advertising. In times of crisis an insatiable demand for hard news from the public may drive the demand for hard news, and journalists and editors need to meet this demand. Sales of newspapers can often increase in times of war, for example. The public demand is for immediate, uncensored news. This was very apparent during the Falklands War, post 9/11, and the Iraqi invasions. Demand for hard news can also increase during certain times when something momentous is happening – examples including the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, the death of Princess Diana, the tsunami in Asia, and the recent flooding of New Orleans. ... read full story / add a comment
national / eu Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 00:31 by Liam Mullen
6 comments (last - sunday march 02, 2008 - 16:32)
Noam Chomsky’s recent visit to Ireland highlighted yet again the dilemma the Irish government faces in whether to accept American assurances that no rendition flights passed through Shannon Airport. As a close economic partner of the US, the Irish government faces embarrassment if it decides to call Condoleezza Rice’s bluff, and insist on checking American flights landing in Shannon. ... read full story / add a comment
national / worker & community struggles and protests Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:59 by Liam Mullen
“Few have captured the spirit of the Enlightenment, its intellectual and social agenda, as has Mozart in his operas.”1 The Enlightenment was a period when a break away from the time we know as the Renaissance took place. It was driven by developments in the Natural Sciences, and especially the work of Newton and Galileo. The German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, had questioned: “What is Enlightenment?” From the Roman poet, Horace, he coined a phrase “Sapere aude” (‘dare to know’).2 Two important events conspired to bring about change. The Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. ... read full story / add a comment
dublin / rights, freedoms and repression Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:43 by james travers
1 comment (last - saturday february 18, 2006 - 22:10)
An essay that questions the problem associated with the publishing of a series of cartoons in a French newspaper that depicts Mohammad carrying a bomb on his head, Is there more to the backlask and is our country setting itself up for racial tension in the future. The question is asked for comment and opinion ... read full story / add a comment
international / worker & community struggles and protests Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:24 by Liam Mullen
INTRODUCTION Robert Pollin opens his book with an introduction that acknowledges how the book came about. He states that in examining the economic policies of the 1990’s under President Clinton, and Clinton’s “third way” approach to fiscal rectitude, that he became unconvinced by the rhetoric emerging from the Clinton administration in relation to US “Economic growth, living standards, and the fragility of the financial system.” His paper on the subject appeared in the June 2000 issue of New Left Review, and later in a volume edited by Professor Arestis and Sawyer, entitled: The Economics of the Third Way: Experiences from Around the World. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:16 by Liam Mullen
BRIEF INTRODUCTION In her book ‘The Face of War’, the American journalist, Martha Gellhorn, recognises the importance of “peacemakers”, and understands the importance of a man like Mikhail Gorbachev when he ushered in “glasnost”, and effectively ended the Cold War. (Gellhorn 1998, p365). Gellhorn is a journalist who has filed reports on a number of conflicts, including the Civil War in Spain, The War in Finland, the Japanese invasion of China, the Second World War, the War in Java, the Vietnam War, the Six Day War, and various conflicts in Central America and Panama. ... read full story / add a comment
national / crime and justice Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:15 by Brian
Twenty-five years ago today, 48 young people lost their lives in the former Stardust Nightclub, Butterly Business Park, Kilmore Road, Artane, Dublin 5. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:09 by Liam Mullen
INTRODUCTION Eleven years after the conflict, which claimed an untold numbers of lives, it seems that it is only now seeping into the western consciousness the scale of the human genocide that occurred in this region with the shooting down of President Habyarimana’s airplane, and the death of Burundi's President Cyprien Ntaryamira. Writing for the Irish Times a year after he first reported on the conflict, Ed O’Loughlin, states that the unrest between the Hutu majority and the wealthier Tutsi minority runs deep and that massacres occurred here back in 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1972. In many ways O’Loughlin’s report sounds like a class struggle between rich and poor, uneducated and educated, and this kind of struggle has been replicated in many other arenas and trouble spots around the world. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 22:58 by Liam Mullen
1 comment (last - wednesday february 15, 2006 - 11:42)
Philip Knightley wrote ‘The First Casualty’ in 1975, and the updated edition was published in 2003 by André Deutsch to take account of new conflicts. The New Yorker describes it as “Disturbing, even dismaying, yet also in its painful way, enormously entertaining.” The renowned journalist, John Pilger, describes the work as follows: “Philip Knightley’s clear-sighted and principled book throws down a challenge to journalists to examine their role in the promotion of war.” (Book Jacket) The title of the work is derived from what American Senator Hiram Johnson said in 1917: “The first casualty when war comes, is truth.” ... read full story / add a comment
international / public consultation / irish social forum Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 22:28 by Liam Mullen
Introduction. When looking at the reasons why the NGO’s might be up in arms when facing the policies of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, I have decided to focus on Trócaire and Concern, two Irish organisations passionately involved in debt relief for the Third World. Concern has been in existence since the Biafra famine of 1968, and has become internationally recognised in the intervening years. Trócaire was set up by the Irish Catholic Church in 1973 as a response mechanism to combat disasters, famines, and to offer aid to the “world’s poorest and most oppressed peoples”. (http://www.trócaire.org). ... read full story / add a comment
limerick / anti-war / imperialism Sunday February 12, 2006 - 01:46 by Martin Garcia Mortell
5 comments (last - monday february 13, 2006 - 11:48)
All oil is traded using the American dollar and the American dollar only. This means that anyone wishing to purchase oil must do so using US dollars. . . ... read full story / add a comment |
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