Marking Time

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

• Crooked Timber: Greenspan concedes
  "How much this matters for bigger questions of what kind of political philosophy will predominate depends very much on the importance you attach to risk management as a central feature of public policy and as ground contested between democratic governments and financial markets."
  (tags: Politics economics)
• Most Sincerely Folks: Movements
  "What is in fact a very modest, conservative even, demand for a decent society ends up getting presented as hugely radical one."
  (tags: Ireland Politics)
• Inside View from Ireland: Telling the Free Wifi Story
  "As a deep recession heads towards Ireland, free and open wifi will cost less than drowning your concerns in an evening of pints. So having the service in the air is a nice way of dealing with the downturn."
  (tags: Ireland technology tools)

“What do we want!”

“Responsible government that doesn’t trade the long term viability of the state for short term electoral gain!”

“When do we want it!”

“After we’ve had our turn at the trough!”

• Easily Distracted: What a Beautiful World
  "The other kind of talk makes me both sick and furious because it takes one of the few parts of our national and global history where we’ve seen a better kind of world come into being and tries to make that into something dirty and shameful."
  (tags: culture Politics)
• Extravagant Gatsby era leaves trail of indebtedness - The Irish Times - Wed, Oct 15, 2008
  Some of the highlights of your government at work.
  (tags: Irish politics economics)

This Budget serves no vested interest. Rather, it provides an opportunity for us all to pull together and play our part according to our means so that we can secure the gains which have been the achievement of the men and women of this country. It is, a Cheann Comhairle, no less than a call to patriotic action.

Brian Lenihan, 14th October 2009

This did not happen overnight. It is the inevitable result of ten years of reckless management of the government finances. We do not need the benefit of hindsight to tell us that we cannot have a sustainable economy if we are relying on the building and selling of houses for the bulk of our revenue.

But hindsight is all we have now and a bucketful of I told you so’s isn’t going to get us out of this mess.

So let me tell you something about my idea of patriotism. Patriotism is about voting responsibly. It is about taking an interest in how your country works, it is about seriously interrogating the merits and viability of the pre-election promises made by the political parties.

It is not about treating the election like a beauty contest, measuring who comes across best on the television, or treating it like the Premiership where we take pleasure in being associated with the winning team. Most of all it is not an auction whereby we sell our vote to the highest bidder for our letter to Santa Claus.

For the last three elections we have voted largely on this basis. Our immaturity has corrupted the process to the point where there is only one acceptable ideology left. Low taxes coupled with high quality public services is the mantra. Any other alternative has been squeezed out. Now the parties are all the same. The marketplace of ideas has been monopolised to such an extent that we have the unedifying spectacle of the Labour party - allegedly, a party of the left - pledging to reduce the standard rate of income tax to 18% at the last election. Admittedly, they were only doing it because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did it and because their political survival depended on it. There was no audience for any other alternative.

So we voted for low taxes and we got higher taxes anyway. Let that be a lesson to you. And let the real call to patriotic action be a call to take politics seriously (because, as we are about to find out for real this time, it is a deadly serious business), to vote responsibly and to take the time to evaluate the consequences of our actions, to be curious about how our country works and to take an interest beyond just ticking a box every five years and then absolving ourselves of blame because the politicians broke their promises.

Maybe then the politicians will respond and start to treat us like adults rather than the spoilt brats that we have been behaving like for the past ten years.

• The Cedar Lounge Revolution: Budget day! So let’s see if they slim state provision.
  Remember, Ireland is a republic in name only. You may have voted for them but they don't vote for you.
  (tags: Ireland Politics economics)

Some photos taken last Sunday in Lahinch. Lest we think this is unseasonable weather for Ireland recall this time last year.

The subtlest change in New York is something people don’t speak much about but that is in everyone’s mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sound of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition.

All dwellers in cities must live with the stubborn fact of annihilation; in New York the fact is somewhat more concentrated because of the concentration of the city itself, and because, of all targets, New York has a certain clear priority. In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.

[…]

The city at last perfectly illustrates both the universal dilemma and the general solution, this riddle in steel and stone is at once the perfect target and the perfect demonstration of nonviolence, of racial brotherhood, this lofty target scraping the skies and meeting the destroying planes halfway, home of all people and all nations, capital of everything, housing the deliberations by which the planes are to be stayed and their errand forestalled.

E. B. White, Here is New York (1949)

I picked up this essay in Oxfam for 3 euro. A fabulous piece of writing.