Of course, it helps that Daddy handed him a major publishing company…

David McWilliams, The Pope’s Children, q.v.

Errrrrrrrr, not for nothing but it was Ireland’s government that started the whole run on worldwide banking, by offering to bail out ITS banks, which forced banks in Spain, Portugal, and France to teeter on the brink, as depositors moved their funds to Ireland for protection.

When the rest of Europe said “Awjeez, we have to do the same thing,” New World and developing world investors put THEIR money into Eurobanks, which meant that Citi and Chase and BofA were all justthisclose to failing.

So, Steyn, tell me again how Ireland’s tax rates had diddly squat to do with this shitpile?

Hey, now, don’t knock a tasty fried black pudding.

My neighborhood cleared out about five/six years ago as the Goidelic contingent returned home for greener economic pastures. The hospitality industry and building trades are hurting here, so I don’t anticipate a mass influx of job-seekers any time soon.

Actually, many monkeys live on the ground. Also, I seem to recall a breed of monkeys that live in the sea, although my memory is hazy on this point. And don’t forget space monkeys, either.

As a less-than-proud Irishman, I claim credit for the Delaware-of-Europe meme.

The fact that there were alsoa lot of right-wingers opposed is not surprising. The EU is run by the political and business elites of each nation, so opposition only tends to come from a) those on the socialist/anti-capitalist end of the left and b) those who somehow managed to confuse the EU with the bogeyman.

Ireland is pretty fucked, however. It guaranteed its bank deposits as soon as the Iceland crisis hit, purely to save themselves by getting money in before they went the same way. They thus screwed over most of the rest of Europe. And it still won’t work.

My girlfriend and I spent Christmas in Ireland and when we went to visit her uncles over there, they were petrified and hoping for government rescue. Whereas six months before they’d been fantastically glibertarian idiots, devoted to the idea that their small business was built up by their own effort and should therefore be left alone.

But since that will never happen, wank on, wingers! Refute on, S,N!

I know and loathe “incentivize” as a prime example of moronic MBA-type jargon. I guess disincentivize isn’t any worse than incentizive; at least having that “word” around helps me filter out the assholes who’ve never heard of “encourage”.

But really, disincentivization? You’ve just nouned a verbed noun. The word you’re looking for, shit for brains, is “disincentive”. Jesus, 16,900 Google hits for “disincentivization”. What the hell is wrong with these people? There needs to be some jail time as a disincentivizationalism for mangling the language like this; plus, anybody who’d use this jargon probably played a major role in the economic mess we’re in and deserves jail time for that.

And I thought Steyn hated all things European, us bunch of Islam loving types.

He really likes the way Europeans talk, at least.

Oh, and don’t forget the poisonings.
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17202
On 3 December Dr Chee was transferred to hospital to undergo tests after the prison’s doctor found traces of blood in his urine and low blood pressure. Dr Chee had reportedly suffered nausea, strong headaches and abdominal pain. Due to his concern that his symptoms were being caused by the food he was being given in prison Dr Chee had refused to eat prison food since 26 November. He resumed eating while in hospital. Dr Chee was discharged from hospital on 7 December and transferred back to prison.

Top ten countries for executions
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=15299
Only 10! That’s not too bad. Oh wait, they have a population of 4.8m. So that’s equivalent to the US executing 625 people or China executing 2500 (they executed 800 or so).

But apart from that they’re fine. No litter.

Unfortunately, not really. Due to the way the EU works, big treaty’s need to be ratified by all countries in the EU, sometimes by parliaments, sometimes by referendums. The referendum gives the public a chance to whine and moan about things, like the Irish did last year, and the Dutch & French did a couple of years ago. Screws everything up for all the others, although some argue that it allows monied vested interests an unwarranted input. i.e. some backers of the Irish no vote last year were ‘interesting’.