“Ratoath Fianna Fail councillor Nick Killian is mad as hell, and he’s not gonna take it any more… Here, he enjoys a discourse with some local youths:“

Charming.

The child who posted the video also has a blog. On 19 Feb, he posted this blog:

Ha ha last week was gr8 i had no skool and i went out and got drunk on friday and got caught ha ha it was fun. Here a video we had gr8 fun lighting a tire on fire. Heres a video:

No adult will be permitted in a playground unless accompanied by a child

It will be an offence for anyone other than a child to use playground equipment

Only families are allowed to take photographs in playgrounds

Kerry County Council have introduced new byelaws regulating the playgrounds in their county. Introduced because of concern that the playgrounds are not being used for the purposes intended, the new byelaws are designed to stop the ‘overaged’ using playground equipment. Dan Kiely (Fianna Fail) is quoted in The Irish Times (sub req) as saying, ‘Thirty-five-year-olds and 50-year-olds are swinging around at 3am in the morning‘. Presumably they’re swing-abusers and not swingers! And to avoid getting scared in the dark (I made that up), nobody is allowed in playgrounds after dark unless they are a council employee (I didn’t make that up).

Those breaching the laws will be fined €75.

You’ve been warned.

I may have miscounted but I’d like to congratulate the 27 councillors who thought deeply about this issue and debated it at great length. You’re worth every penny euro.

Thankfully, the nitendo is white, the psp is black and the computer doesn’t have an internet connection so my 9 year old niece dumbed things down for me! In a stream of conscious type of excitement, she told me, ‘I’d like game x for the white one and game y for the black one’.

The long and short of it is that she’d like Age of Empires for the computer and MySims for the white one (sorry, the nintendo DS). But I was a bit freaked out when she told me about one of the games she already has. It’s called Imagine: Babies for the Nintendo. I didn’t believe her that it was an actual game. But it is! It’s so incredibly sexist and demeaning that I can’t believe it’s allowed to be sold. As you’ll see from the description below, it’s targeted specifically at girls.

Basically she has to pretend to be a babysitter and earn money.

Here’s a description from game.co.uk

Embody a young student who visits her grandmother’s house for the summer. Your grandmother leaves to go on holiday and leaves you in charge of her house. During her absence you will have to maintain the house and even decorate it to your taste. In order to do this you will need to earn money by taking care of all your neighbour’s babies, where you will find your vocation–babysitting!

Imagine: Babies Features:

* Embody a young babysitter and take of your neighbour’s babies all with their own personalities!
* Take care of 6 babies (one after the other), each with a distinctive character.
* Prepare their bottle and baby food in the kitchen, check on the amount of food in stock and buy the right food according to their needs.
* Rock the babies in a cradle, put on the soothing radio or move the mobile to help them sleep or to calm them down.
* Change their nappies to keep them clean, keep an eye on their health and dress them up with different clothes
* Entertain the babies: Play with them and their toys, play music to make them dance and take them into the garden to play on swings and other garden toys
* Exchange information, photos and clothing with other players through Wi-Fi
* Keep the house clean: Use fun mini-games to create a welcoming home for the babies: wash up, clean and vacuum, paint the walls, mow the grass, trim hedges and drive away spiders!
* Make the house to your own taste: Use the money you earn and the vouchers you receive in succeeding in your missions, buy items at the shops to decorate the house

/Rant

The most damning thing I can say about my old school is that the teachers simply didn’t care about the pupils they were teaching. Obstensibly, it should have been a good school; it was in a middle-class area and the student body was probably 66% middle-class and 33% working class. My friends hate me using the word ‘class’ but sometimes it’s a good shorthand. In this situation, one would expect the expectation/entitlement of one class to interact with the hunger of the other class. It should have been ripe for everyone to feed off each other and encourage the students towards higher education and/or entrenpeneurship.

Here’s some examples. Only the first one is likely to have changed.

• The students were graded into A1, A2, B1, B2 classes. Imagine being in the B2 class! I was in the A1 class and therefore was taught latin. There was a computer room but only the B1 and B2 classes were allowed to use them…
• I was a cheeky sod (still am)and I always questioned everything (still do). Being ‘disruptive‘, my parents were called in by the Geography teacher. My mother takes no prisoners and, soon enough, herself and the teacher got into it. Her final position was that I only had to do Geography for 40 mins a day whereas he had to do it for 8 hours a day. Whose commitment was likely to be wanting? He had no answer to that!
• We were trained to be office drones. The CAO forms (University application forms) were never handed out, never discussed, even though I think our civics teacher wrote a mass-market book on the subject. As well as the computer rooms, there was also an art room but again only the B1/B2 classes got to use them.
• It’s sorta funny now but, on a Friday, both the teachers and the students used to take off their ties, go to the local pub, and drink beer!!

I could go on but I’d only get twisted and bitter!!

Thanks to my parent’s support, I did go on to higher education in the end and have travelled halfway around the world using my qualifications. In a strange quirk of fate, I’ve ended up back in my old neighbourhood. But there’s no way I’d send my children (t.b.a.) to my old school.

If I did have children, I’d definitely send them to a Northside school. But I’d want it to have a good mix of Irish and foreign* children with an emphasis on mixing the academic and the creative. *Not sure what the PC term is for ‘foreign’ but I think a cultural mix can only be good.

So ends the rant lesson.

I don’t know if they flipped a coin but the decision probably had something to do with the paperwork and the midwife’s teabreak. Having said that, the indecision…the midnight hour…the workaday Friday versus the leisurely Saturday probably explains a lot…about who isadubis.

Here’s two extracts…

So now, about the photograph. If you look on his fingernails, you can see some of the legacy of that treatment. On each of his fingernails there is a strong white line which is gradually being forced upwards by new, healthy nail beneath.

Underneath that line should be a cancer free man, if the doctors are right.

It reminds me of the time when, as a child, our GP (family physician) made a housecall because I was ill. Doctors did housecalls in those days but he also lived three doors down from us so it wasn’t really a stretch for him! I must have been going through the boys hate girls phase because when he rolled up my sleeve for an injection, what profound statement did he find written in biro on my arm? Yes, you’ve guessed it – ‘I hate grils‘!

Turns out I did like girls afterall but I did turn vegetarian a few years later. Nowadays, I hate grilled rashers and sausages. Either there’s a hint of dyslexia in me or I was able to predict the future even when I was a little boy!!

But the reason why it’s one of my favourite pics is the expression of the Garda (police officer). He probably joined the Guards out of some sort of civic duty. Catch the criminals and right the wrongs of society. Maybe even help the public live peaceful lives. Instead, he gets to safeguard the crime scene of, what, criminal damage? Foaming without a licence?

All those years spent fighting playing on a GAA pitch and it’s come to this. He’s so fed up, he can’t even talk to his mate colleague.

Best viewed large.

Last line #1: Yes, sleeping with Prince Valium makes every morning feel like Sunday morning. The downside is I only have nine left. The comments are very funny as well!

Last line #2: Tomorrow, the government launches massive campaign to find out why people don’t sunbathe in Ireland.

Read ‘em and weep…

Southill continues to spiral out of control
Despite an extra Garda presence in Southill Sunday following a shooting incident which left a 24 year old man injured, the violence continues with more reports of trouble in the area.

Gardai say that following the shooting of David Leamy Late Saturday night, two hrs later a house was petrol bombed. Then , Shortly afterwards a house that had been shot at twice previously had its windows smashed in. The unrest continued into 4.45am where a man fired shots from a house that was coming under attack. As Gardai arrived at the scene they came under attack with bottles and bricks.

Around the same time, Gardai arrested 19-year-old Alan Kelly(left) after he made death threats to a Garda and another man in the area. He appeared before a sitting of District court today and was remanded to appear again on Wednesday.

Newswire has published a photo of Alan Kelly here while RTE gives his full address in their report.

I’ve tagged this post with children because, well,…just look at his photo.
And I’ve tagged it with death because, well,…give it a week day or two.
And I’ve tagged it with la-la-land because, well,…it just is.