tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408840869666170112024-02-01T18:50:57.745-08:00The West AwakeLaunched on 18 Dec 2013, this blog is about current affairs of both past and present, and about sharing your stories, photos, videos, and healthy outrage with opinions in the pursuit of positive change. To encourage it, I have posted parts of my journal of hope called Twenty-One Years that inspired this blog, along with articles, photos, and those of others. Bad news laced with poisonous and misleading stories is easily got somewhere else.
Your views are important and welcome here. Thank you.
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.comBlogger1960125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-21239389963306930892020-01-24T23:59:00.001-08:002020-01-24T23:59:15.482-08:00A Very Privileged Man<br />
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Séan Kyne with just 17 votes was elected to the Dáil back in 2011. It was subterfuge that got him in and kept him in. He believed that the people of the Gaeltacht were fickle and said they would not have elected him if he could not speak Irish. I suppose honesty and integrity might have helped because they also believed in that most of all. From then on his life utterly changed for the better and ours for the worse in that nothing has changed at all in C<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">onnemara. Let’s go reeling in the years for a bit.</span></div>
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Kyne is paid a salary today of €125, 739 a year plus an un-vouched allowance of €34,065 for travel and accommodation. On average he has already grabbed since 2011 well close to €1.5 million in salary and expenses. This simply was not enough for him for he lobbied hard in late 2018 for even more money in order to pay his hotel bills. </div>
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Kyne developed ‘Vehophobia’ after he got elected and decided to hire a car and driver to drive him around instead which was paid for by you and I. If one is going to milk a new fat cat position you might as well keep it in the family for he then hired his brother-in-law, Tom Mc Donagh, to do the driving. Just over a quarter of TD’s applied for this perk. </div>
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Bless him, he has put on a few pounds since those leaner times and given up the evening strolls too lest he be admonished by some irate Connemara pensioner in the wilds who cannot make ends meet on €234, or a farmer that earns less than the minimum or living wage. Yes, Kyne is a very privileged man indeed. In all transactions there must be a benefit in kind. What has Kyne done for Connemara???</div>
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Little or nothing is the the shortest answer and this I will detail a little later. Knowledge is power and we will need all the knowledge that we can get in order to remove this man from power because much wants more while we get less and less. </div>
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Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-45215656818011641462019-07-08T12:36:00.001-07:002019-07-08T12:36:19.420-07:00Extract From the book: Law, Lawyers And Liars<br />
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<span class="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">When most people walk nervously into a solicitor/lawyers office they will not notice this clause within the contract they may be about to sign: “It is not possible, at this stage, to give you a note of our actual charges nor a detailed estimate either because of the following reasons: It is the complexity and urgency of the matter, the difficulty or the novelty of the question raised, the skill, labour, specialised knowledge and responsibility involved, the number and importance of the documents prepared or examined. There is also the amount and value of the transaction involved, the importance of the matter to you, the places and circumstances in which the proceedings are pursued. In addition, there may be barristers fees of both senior and junior counsel, and other outlays like court documents, requesting and reviewing doctor's reports, paramedics, government agencies reports and other associate documents.”</span></div>
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<span class="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Can anyone possibly imagine another profession, such as a builder, presenting a contract of that nature before starting a job? Not only would he find it hard to get work, but if he did, the consumer protection agency would be run off its feet trying to keep up with the complaints made against him. It is also the reason in 2011 why the parents of a young man, wrongly identified for having evaded a taxi fare in Dublin, were presented with a bill by their lawyer for €1,900,000, that included €500,000 (this is not a mis-print) for outlay and other expenses alone in that case. The lawyers name was Paul Lambert. When Lambert hired more lawyers in the High Court to try and make Eamon and Fidelma McKeogh pay up, Ronan Lupton, BL (barrister at law), defending him in his appeal for those costs, stated the following: “It was clear in letters to Mr McKeogh and his parents, when Mr Lambert was instructed in January 2012, an hourly rate would be charged by him. It was also made clear that additional staff and consultants might be needed, that there were more complex factual and evidential issues involved and expert reports may be necessary.” This is the rehearsed and staple answer that is usually given when it comes to the very clouded issue of costs hidden in plain view of any lawyer to contract client. </span></div>
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<span class="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">This not in the small print either of that contract: “You remain responsible for the payment of our charges even where you reach a settlement with the plaintiff or third party (defendant) or where they are ordered to pay costs. The amount which the plaintiff or third party agree or may be directed to pay or fail to pay may not generally cover our entire charges. In that case you will be liable to make up any shortfall. Losing or compromising the case, or the court failing to award you your costs, or a portion of them, or the court awarding the costs against you, or being unable to recover your costs due to the financial status of the other party, you will be liable to pay the other parties costs as well as your own.” In the end of any legal conflict, whether defendant of plaintiff, each party has the potential of being rendered bankrupt whether they win or lose a case in court. Citizen must always beware of signing any contract between them and a lawyer because justice may lay in the mind but rarely translated to reality.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Barry Clifford</span></div>
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Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-34365002540126856972019-06-11T12:08:00.003-07:002019-07-08T13:43:48.795-07:00Get your copy of Law, Lawyers And Liars at the link below<a href="http://lawlawyersandliars.com/" target="_blank">lawlawyersandliars.com</a>Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-91781241677814024602019-06-11T12:04:00.002-07:002019-06-11T12:05:17.390-07:00What people are saying about Law, Lawyers And Liars<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">“Congratulations on a wonderful piece of writing, You have managed to take an often dull and complex subject matter, weave it around a compelling story style process, to make the product very interesting for the reader. This book must be published and made available to the person in the street. However, I don’t think Ken Murphy from The Law Society is going to be asking you to speak at their annual dinner! I was feeling great emotion for Tom as I was reading, so I have decided to buy something from his shop every month, no matter how small it is. Well done again on a very fine piece of writing.”Bill Daly (Archaeologist, historian)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">“Your legal knowledge is impressive … The way you explain everything shows an amazing understanding of the legal process. Your book is fantastically interesting and that's before you know Tom and the whole Groonard experience.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Monica Crowley (Clinical Psychologist)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">“This book should be read by everyone before going to a lawyer.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Kevin Joyce (Security specialist)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">“This book is a truthful account of what I went through under the law. And to Barry – I owe him a lot for being there and staying with me to the end when so many others kept on walking.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Tom Ryan (Not his real name) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">“Finally we get a chance to know what can really go on in a court. It is a shocking story, but a necessary one to be told. Barry’s personal advice with it saved me a lot of time and money because I was just about to step into something that was otherwise free.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">John Laffey (Builder)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">“I did my own case after reading this book and am so glad that I did.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Bridie McKenna (Counsellor and therapist)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">“What we don’t know can kill us. This book certainly helped me not to do that.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">(Anonymous divorcee)</span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-78344177152582146282019-06-11T11:56:00.003-07:002019-06-11T11:56:49.006-07:00Extract from Law, Lawyers and Liars<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.1px; margin-left: 13px; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">When Eoin McKeogh was identified as having dodged a local taxi fare worth around €20, his parents hired a lawyer who cleared their son's name in this simple case of mistaken identity. The lawyer later billed them €1.4 million for his services and €500,000 for expenses. In another case, Tom Ryan was sent to prison for not finding €59,998 to pay reputation damages to a man he believed had stolen a battery pocket watch from his store. Ryan's home and farm were under threat of seizure even after he was released. This entertaining and educational book, which was inspired by these cases and others, was written to help empower anyone fighting a case in the courts, with or without a lawyer. After reading </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i>Law, Lawyers And Liars, </i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">you will never look at these three words the same way again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Get your copy here by pressing on this </span>link:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><a href="http://lawlawyersandliars.com/">lawlawyersandliars.com</a> </span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-85346930452424427942019-06-11T10:38:00.000-07:002019-06-11T11:39:32.699-07:00Some Opinions On law, Lawyers And Liars<div style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 13px;">
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: -0.1px;">“Lawyer: The only man in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.” <i>Elbert Hubbard</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: -0.1px;">Judges are but men, and are swayed like other men by vehement prejudices. This is corruption in reality, give it whatever other name you please. <i>David Dudley Field</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, and fishing nets in the hands of the government. <i>Pierre Joseph Proudhon</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">A lawyer is a gentleman who rescues your estate from your enemies and keeps it for himself. <i>Lord Brougham</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The houses of lawyers are roofed with the skins of litigants. <i>Welsh Proverb</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: -0.1px;">There is no such thing as justice — in or out of court. <i>Clarence Darrow</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;">If you think good legal advice is expensive, you should see the cost of bad legal advice.<i> Anon</i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><br />
“More Laws, less justice”. Cicero</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><i>Order your copy now from: <a href="http://www.lawlawyersandliars.com/" target="_blank">lawlawyersand liars.com</a></i></span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-78116843531724032342019-06-08T14:10:00.003-07:002019-06-09T23:48:56.687-07:00Law, Lawyers And Liars<div class="kb mb" style="line-height: 24px;">
<b><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: OpenSans; font-size: 15px;">This book is about Law, lawyers and liars and the threads that bind all three. A story of captive audiences in a court where justice is an illusionary prize for most, even for the winners of a court action. A place also where an inconvenient truth is often beaten down by a lie and an inconvenient lie can be beaten down by the truth. In essence what this book is about is getting a clearer and more broad picture of the judicial system. As Wendell Holmes Jr (Former American </i><span style="font-family: "opensans";"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><i>Chief</i></span></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: OpenSans; font-size: 15px;"> </i><span style="font-family: "opensans";"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><i>Justice</i></span></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: OpenSans; font-size: 15px;">) so succinctly said, "A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions'. This what I want for the reader. To be better informed always makes for better choices in a place where a person of means can lose everything because of the practices of the courts itself. Please press on the link below to order your copy.</i></b><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "opensans"; font-size: 15px;"><i><b>Barry Clifford</b></i></span></div>
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http://<a href="http://lawlawyersandliars.com/" target="_blank">lawlawyersandliars.com</a></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-54146773198783297292018-02-25T01:02:00.002-08:002018-02-26T20:19:24.053-08:00The great mass starvation of 1847<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">There is always a certain sense when writers write about the great famine, which is sometimes called the ‘great hunger’, in Ireland of 1847 starting with the word ‘great’ in order to draw a particular picture. It is words that either add description to something or detract from its reality by their economy and form. Of course there is or was nothing great about hunger or that it was a famine in the true sense of the word; It was mass starvation on a national scale perfected by, at least at that time, one of the most powerful countries in the world, Great Britain. Again, there was nothing ‘great’ about Britain either unless you factor in a monstrous tyranny against people of every race and culture across the globe starting with their nearest neighbour, us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When the biggest mass starvation raged in Ireland, it was just another one in the long catalogue of others that went before it. Four raged in that century alone while none has happened in our near century of freedom. Writers have for generations tried to label that last attempt at mass starvation as more to do with neglect, mixed in with officialdom and bureaucracy, as being heavily to blame because of a mere potato blight. In Ireland today if every single potato died in the ground no free citizen would die with it. There lies the only difference and evidence that ever mattered. During every year of every mass starvation in Ireland, record exports of wheat and cattle, that benefitted only the British landlord and the government that protected them, left for other lands except ours. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">How Britain saw us as a country historically is the undercurrent as to how they see us now, even though it is edging toward a more positive change than ever before. The writer, Niamh O’ Sullivan recently wrote in the Irish Times that: “The racialisation of poverty justified government policy then, leading the Times to condemn the ‘wretched, indolent, half-starved tribe of savages who never approached the standard of the civilised world.’ </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Even Niamh could not resist labelling in part this historic mass starvation of a people as: "…..the outcome of a systematic neglect by the richest empire in the world." I can neglect or forget to feed a child or myself but neither of us will ever starve as a result.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">There is some residue from a historical sentiment and argument still used against refugees today, even by former refugees and migrants who have pulled themselves up from abject poverty a couple of thousand years ago. Positively tribal I say. Cheery picked amnesia is easy for the beggar who has found himself a horse in order to ride over those still starving on the ground. Yet many slaves of the 1800's, free and indentured, along with tribes of indigenous peoples in America and elsewhere, sent money to relieve the appalling suffering of the Irish people as it even outweighed their own. We must not try to cover up our past or compromise on its horrors for </span>political<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> and </span>commercial gain, for our shared past with England and the world is at least a moral blueprint for the helping hand that means freedom rather than the jackboot that represents oppression. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I leave you with a quote or two from one infamous landlord at that 'never to be forgotten time', Sir Charles Trevelyan, who considered the ‘famine’ and said: “the judgement of God sent this calamity to teach the Irish a lesson.” He also added: “It was an effective mechanism for reducing surplus population.” He must have read Charles Dickens character ‘Scrooge’ sentiments on the matter.</span></div>
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Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-20591144654919729682018-02-15T21:57:00.004-08:002018-02-16T23:56:24.410-08:00"The law must take its course."<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">From the rear of the courthouse on all of the first floor rooms, the views from the windows would be of the impressive looking cathedral just the other side of the bridge that spans the river Corrib and joins them both. This cathedral replaced an old prison that closed for good in 1939 that ended a chapter in history that most people back then would have preferred to forget. For the rest of us it should not never be forgotten. It was a pitiless building from a pitiless time where the grim and unjust sentences and miscarriages of justice of the Galway courthouse rendered many a man and woman to die there slowly from a living hell. Others were dispatched more quickly where their innocence was just a moot point afterwards. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Myles Joyce</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One of them was a man named Myles Joyce who was to be hanged in 1882 along with two more innocent men because they had been implicated falsely in the Connemara Maamtrasna murders. The family that were slaughtered there that fateful night were a man, his mother and his wife including their daughter and son. Another nine -year old son was badly injured but survived and his older brother was lucky to have been away that night. Because of the murders, these two newly orphaned boys ended up later in a children's prison: the Artane Industrial reformatory Institution in Dublin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The heavily pregnant wife of Myles Joyce wrote in part of her appeal for clemency to try and save her husband from the hangman: "I earnestly beg and implore his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant to examine and consider this hard case of an innocent man, which leaves a widow and five orphans to be before a long drift in the world." The response from his Excellency was as cold as the cell that held Myles: "The law must take its course."</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The last words spoken by Myles in his only language that was Irish just before the noose was tied around his neck were: "I am going before my God. I was not there at all. I had no hand or part in it. I am as innocent as a child in a cradle. It is a poor thing to take this life away on a stage; but I have my priest with me." Then he stepped onto a platform where the floor dropped beneath him. His life was extinguished slowly and very painfully for he was not hung but strangled to death because the hangman had not set the stage properly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Two years later, one of the three false witnesses against Myles Joyce admitted that he lied in his testimony in a type of public confession to all that attended his local church one morning; but that was long after this liar and the other two with him had been paid the staggering sum of £1,250 between them which is equivalent to around £157,000 (sterling) or over $200,000 American dollars today. An amount simply unheard of before or since for witnesses in Galway or much anywhere else. The man who paid them their blood money was the same Lord Lieutenant. A journalist who wrote about the case in 1885 said: "The British government couldn't contemplate the appalling vista of having to admit to convicting innocent people." There has never been an official apology since.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The now famous cathedral that stands on that site today of the infamous prison is the focal point for locals and tourists alike. Even anyone with no particular religious point of view would be impressed by the external and internal stonework, the reliquaries, the beautiful mosaics and other artwork within; not to mention the feeling of peaceful solitude and community spirit that it all seems to bring. There every Sunday, the main players or priests with a bishop now and again for guest appearance, wear their costumes well for church services that includes weddings, births and deaths for most other weeks of every year. In many ways this building represents the draping over of past injustices for it would be a fitting memorial to all those that died and were buried here if even a plague served as their obituary. But there is none, as it is often an Irish custom to cover up by covering over the wrongs of the past and the present in the hope that they won't be found out in the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Back at the court house on that same first floor room, yet another group of actors huddle around tables making deals in secret union with one another. Many of these men and women also wear costume wigs and gowns befitting to their roles; portraying themselves to the public galleries in the building and to their clients, as legal combatants with morals. They call themselves lawyers or solicitors and barristers at law. At any day's end in this trinity of buildings, it is about how well each performances will go down by the actors, and how it was believed by those that it mattered to. Shakespeare wrote: "The worlds a stage and all the men merely players. They have their exits and their entrances..." Oscar Wilde added his spin on it by saying "The world is a stage and the play is badly cast." This Galway courthouse with it's courtroom and stages, badly cast or not, would become a familiar arena for Vincent Coyne. He also happened to hail from the same area as Myles Joyce in Connemara, while his grandmother, who's maiden name was also Joyce, was related to him. Let the play begin......</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Barry Clifford </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">An excerpt from my forthcoming book: Law, Lawyers and Liars</span></div>
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Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-78227887473883123272018-02-13T10:27:00.000-08:002018-02-13T10:27:05.018-08:00The Irish Police Ombudsman or GSOC....are useless<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The Irish Police Ombudsman or GSOC: Those are the guys that are supposed to be overseeing the rights and more of the wrongs of the Irish police force. Another group, unfortunately, which is also a toothless and seriously gummy lot. Take the pulse system, a police data base that has been accessed illegally by police for their own personal ends and has being the Internet vehicle for destroying people's characters, for wrongful arrests, and has became a feeding tube to the media for the same purpose and much more. The GSOC in all these instances has done little or nothing except do a public wringing of their hands every now and then. Not that the Police themselves, their intended target, have or ever will be of any help to them, and in that it is understandable in any human context for they are hardly going to participate in their own hanging. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The police too have years of combined experience in holding the glue together on the blue wall of silence even though it has shown a few cracks in recent years. It will take more than a few cracks though to be able to drive a wedge through it. Failure to cooperate with any investigation is a failure itself by virtue of the fact that when it comes to the police doing it, it is not viewed as a serious crime. When it is viewed that way, if ever, that wall of silence will crumble very fast. For now, as with all police forces internationally, we can only live in hope and have a lot of it for the complaints against the police keep on rising year on year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In just a four year period there was over 10,000 complaints against the 13,000 strong Irish Police force and the main problem with the GSOC is that it is an investigative body/agency only. Any file collected on a suspect or errant policeman is then sent to the Department of Public Prosecution or DPP afterwards, and if an unlikely prosecution is warranted by them it then moves to trial. Ultimately, if any sanctions are deemed necessary against a police man/woman after a guilty verdict then this is reverted back to the boys in blues boss: the Police Commissioner. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Here are some of the run of the mill police sanctions in Ireland for policemen: turning up drunk at a murder scene or any scene, a policeman will face only a minimum two weeks loss of pay not to exceed 10% of his salary; if he runs over an innocent or guilty citizen with his trusty patrol car while drunk, he 'may' face an internal enquiry by, you guessed it, other policemen. This, in a nut shell, is why it is not a good idea to cooperate with the police at anytime unless it is for a very good cause starting with yourself last and in the first instance.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Barry Clifford</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">An excerpt from my forthcoming book: Law, Lawyers and Liars</span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-78156973544201006852018-02-13T09:45:00.002-08:002018-02-13T09:45:33.471-08:00No need for words.......<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-64314246013665509632018-02-10T13:47:00.002-08:002018-02-14T05:48:11.722-08:00Rich man, poor man on lawyer costs<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">At the prices mentioned below, a rich man will become a poor man very quickly and not knowing the distinction between the word 'or' and the word 'and' can be just one of the reasons why. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">A lawyer 'middle of the lower road' firm in Ireland today will cost, very conservatively speaking, the following charges for every hour that they are contracted:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The principal owner: €350 per hour</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One journeyman lawyer: €250 per hour</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Legal secretary: €120 per hour</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All these costs can be lumped together as firm or company costs that works out at a grand total of €720 for each hour worked. And that is before they even get to court!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The above rates are exclusive of VAT at 13.5% and any other outlays outside of those charges, such as a barrister or junior counsel while and senior counsel will be more. To put that in perspective: a medical doctor working in an Irish hospital currently receives €35 per hour he works before tax and without contract, pension or other benefits. A lone barrister can cost anywhere from €400 per day to over €7000 and more and junior barrister is €4,752. Subsequent days thereafter can cost €1,562 for each day. Lawyers can cost the same brief fee as the barrister and each day thereafter can be another €750 in addition. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the circuit court they are cheaper, if you could really call it that: Senior counsel is €1,716 a day, a refresher fee is €858 with junior counsel and lawyers getting €1,144 per day and €572 and €418 per day respectively. The refresher fee sounds like they are going out for a soda, a massage and a sauna. Maybe they were as long as doleful and unsuspecting clients keep on paying for it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Ciara Murphy of the Barristers Law Society thinks those fees are actually quite moderate and only level now with 2002 fees. To soften the blow of that minority opinion in case it might not be compatible with a majority one, she added that 'the work' is now much more complex and demanding. Wait till she decides to go working for a living, though these fees and her comments helps illustrate what planet she and other likewise alien forces think they are on. One lone barrister, Emily Egan SC, earned over €1 million for herself working for state bodies last year (2017) with four more costume figures just like her earning over €500,000 each. These fees, comparatively speaking, are more often than not twice what they are in England. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Then, to keep all of these fees under wraps the taxing master, that quasi-judicial body, rarely publishes their findings against overcharging by lawyers or barristers and anything in between. Neither does it provide a public register of findings or determinations, and, as always, only questions remain in its wake and never full answers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 14px;">What is a lay litigants time worth in big or small matters? Are these prices not motivation enough to know that what a person can be saving is €750 an hour minimum, which is the same as earning it just by their own research! Belief in oneself is the starting point here and only gets better from there before or after anyone starts researching in earnest. Another way of getting there is engaging a law student who would be happy with just €10 an hour to put a person in the right direction and can be found at any university. Plus, this real time experience can help any student on their academic journey. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Barry Clifford from my forthcoming book called: Law, Lawyers And Liars</span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-91160085788943385252018-02-03T23:58:00.000-08:002018-02-03T23:58:01.502-08:00Recording secretly just about anything<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">When a person uses a computer they are in effect recording a conversation by their fingerprints or fingertips alone. Using a personnel computer over time brings the relationship between the user and it to a whole new level where people are less guarded in what they write, seek and say. All manner of open and closed secrets are revealed to the machine, and, like an errant lover, it will betray the owner without shedding one tear of emotion sooner or later. One time it took only removing the hard drive from a computer to destroy it but not anymore. The only advise to anyone using a computer is that what you write, seek and say is what you would have no problem to begin with in sharing with one thousand strangers in a room of what exactly that is. The same optics should apply to how you use your phone in what you are recording and who may be recording you whether it is in visual or audio form. The rules that apply to this varies from country to country and is important that anyone learns and knows what they are in regard to them. Let's look at Ireland to at least give an overview of what this means because every armchair or barstool lawyer has an opinion on this one; some qualified lawyers have a few too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One defense of those who have been recorded is that they feel they were cheated on, violated and a breach of confidence was betrayed; much again like the analogy of an errant lover. Well, that's the emotional defense and the legal one is not much better as it is claimed that the secret recording is illegal or in breach of the constitutional right to privacy. When it comes to visual or the audio recording of another, unfortunately or fortunately, these terms and conditions do not apply here in Ireland and a lot of other countries as well for Irish law requires only "single one party consent." That means the consent of the person doing the recording only! </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some countries legislation prohibits this of course but in Ireland other parties need not be informed at all whether they would have agreed to being recorded or not. There are a few exceptions to the rule: businesses, both private and public, employers and other marketing type companies, which is why they always have a pre- recorded voice message letting a person know that the call that they are on may well be recording and is being done under the guise for training purposes. It is more likely being recorded as an oral signature or not to an agreement or disagreement, or as evidence of the nature of the call and for various other but common marketing strategies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As a private citizen one is not bound by these same rules in any shape or form if what they are recording is being kept for their "personal affairs" only and that could be later deemed to be consumption for the "public interest that favors the disclosure of what was recorded". If a man was about to rob a bank and a recording by a friend testified to that intent, then that would easily fall under that heading as the friend automatically is protected by the "whistleblower act" and if that didn't do it then the "confidential recipient" act would have.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In Vincent Coyne's case I was the one doing the recording in court for 'free' and up close and personal to the judge; whether the stenographer at the court was doing the same thing came down to one simple fact of economics and that was her recording, if she had one, was going to cost me €200 for every hour of it. I was legally allowed to record despite the public's overall perception that this was not legal. It is allowed and the law is even more clear here: from policeman to judge and anyone in between that is classed as a public servant or government official in any capacity, then a citizen is allowed to record them to their hearts content by any means necessary. If any confidentiality clause did apply, even in the narrowest definition of what that meant, again, a countervailing public interest that applied to it favors a public disclosure. If someone cries that recordings would have a "harmful effect" on them in order to try and prevent disclosure, this can only apply in cases that involve serious and direct harms that facilities and encourages the planning and commission of a crime against that person. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is worth nothing too that in the Galway courthouse, and the only one that I am familiar with, that there are no written warning notices of any kind outside of the various courtrooms stating recording is not allowed. If they were then they are simply not worth the paper they are written on in terms of what the law is in relation to it or its enforceability; much like a sign telling a wheelchair bound person who wants to use the disability ground floor bathroom that it is 'out of order' and to please use the toilet on the second floor instead. That is not just a story because I was there in the building that had no elevator when it happened</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am reliably informed that some courthouses state you must switch off your phone before entering the courtroom. This is a loose and unenforceable rule too by the courts to keep the perception going that recording is not allowed, and of course if a phone is turned off then there is no chance to record in the first place. Turning the ringer tone off and the volume down is all that is needed to be done in this regard and neither action will affect the recording. If the phone is not turned down rather than turned off, the judge could go after the owner on a contempt charge for interrupting the court if it starts ringing during proceedings even once, and several times would only make things worse and he might even confiscate the phone. Any little secrets then will not be a secret for long even if the person gets their phone back later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is no better signature evidence of any event inside a courtroom or outside of one, than a visual or audio recording of what really happened whether it was a public or private matter in the interaction of persons or events by themselves. In insurance matters a recording is the deadbolt lock on a steel door, and what is recorded is the key to opening it to see what's really going on behind it. Everyone in the modern world has a phone with a recording device and comes as standard in a modern car. In short: like what the American Express card advertisement says: "you shouldn't leave home without one".</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Barry Clifford in an excerpt from my forthcoming book: Law, Lawyers and Liars</span></div>
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Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-418785580112859772018-02-03T01:17:00.001-08:002018-02-03T01:17:05.407-08:00 The scale of hatred for Gerry Adams is unfair<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #515151; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As the Sinn Féin leader prepares to step down, it is important to recall his many achievements</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Three thousand, three hundred and thirty six people were killed during the course of the Northern Ireland conflict from 1966 to 1999. Close to half of these were killed by the Provisional IRA. Thousands more were mutilated for life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As perhaps the most powerful person in the IRA during most of this conflict – certainly from 1978 to 1994 –Gerry Adams must assume a significant part of the responsibility for this carnage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is hardly surprising then that Adams, who officially steps down as Sinn Féin leader next week, is so loathed and distrusted by the unionist population in Northern Ireland, by a large number of people in the South, and by many others elsewhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But the scale of such loathing is unfair, for it fails to take into account the crucial, indeed central, part Gerry Adams played in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There’s reason to think he did not have a happy childhood in Divismore Park, in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast – contrary to the charmed upbringing described in his book, <i>Before the Dawn</i>. Gerry Adams’s father was a paedophile who abused at least one of Gerry’s siblings and who seems to have been violent and an alcoholic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The young Gerry Adams was moved out of the family home to live with his paternal grandparents in the Lower Falls Road, perhaps prompted by the arrival of more brothers and sisters in the Divismore Park house, or perhaps to remove him from harm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Gerry Adams had a stutter in his early years and fared poorly academically – he failed the 11 Plus exam at the first time of trying. For somebody who has been so obviously very clever in his adulthood, there’s something strange here. He quit secondary school prematurely to become the family’s main breadwinner, a role he abandoned within four years when he became a full-time republican “activist”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Having dithered about which side to join when the IRA split at the end of 1969, he joined the Provisionals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Significant figure</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Though Adams has always denied he was in the IRA, it is believed he quickly became a significant figure in the Provisionals, at first officer commanding (O/C) in Ballymurphy, his home area, and later, O/C of the Belfast brigade. From then until his internment in 1972 (interrupted for few months to enable him partake in negotiations with the British government as part of an IRA delegation) he acquired a reputation as a ruthlessly effective IRA commander.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He was involved in the decisions to execute suspected informers, including the wrongly accused Jean McConville, although, I understand, it was not he who ordered that their bodies be “disappeared”. He has consistently denied any role in the killing of Jean McConville.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">During his time as Brigade O/C, an ingenious British secret service operation –Four Square Laundry – was discovered and destroyed. It was also in this period that the bombing of London started – at his direction, though he has also denied this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Following further spells in prison, he was co-opted to the IRA army council, a position he held almost until the end of the conflict.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He became chief of staff in 1977. He held the position for only 78 days. He was arrested again, this time following one of the most horrific atrocities of the Northern Ireland conflict: the bombing of the La Mon House hotel in Castlereagh, Belfast, on February 17th, 1978.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Though he has many disreputable legacies, Gerry Adams deserves credit for a number of achievements</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The IRA attached a device described a blast incendiary to the grill of a window at the hotel’s restaurant. The blast produced a massive fireball, killing 12 people. Their bodies were so badly burnt that when they were discovered it was thought at first they were the bodies of children. All were Protestants. Another 30 people were injured.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the wake of the atrocity Gerry Adams was arrested. He was not prosecuted in connection with the La Mon conflagration – he has also denied any role in that attack – but was charged with membership of the IRA.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When it was ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a charge of IRA membership, Adams returned to the IRA fold, this time as chief strategist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The IRA hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981 were fiercely opposed by Adams, who believed they could not succeed in ameliorating prisoners’ conditions. He also believed that the failure of the hunger strikes would damage the morale and capacity of the IRA. He was wrong on the latter point. The second hunger strike, led by Bobby Sands</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">, won massive popular support for – and recruits to – the IRA.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Bobby Sands’s byelection victory in Fermanagh-South Tyrone in April 1981 upended one of the foundational principles of the Provisional IRA, which until then had opposed participation in electoral politics, and propelled the movement into the political arena.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Adams himself was elected to Westminster in 1983. He lost his seat to the SDLP in 1992 and recovered it in 1997, but it was obvious the party could not build a significant political base while IRA violence persisted. This was one of the considerations that persuaded Adams to seek a way out of the armed conflict. He was encouraged from an early stage by the Redemptorist priest Alec Reid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In May 1987, based on his conversations with Adams, Reid wrote to then taoiseach Charles Haughey, outlining a path towards peace in Northern Ireland. Haughey got Dermot Ahern and Martin Mansergh to engage in exploratory talks and about the same time John Hume became involved at the instigation of Reid. It was the start of the peace process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">These contacts were made, it seems, unbeknownst to other members of the IRA army council, perhaps with the exception of Martin McGuinness. Had it become generally known within the republican movement what Adams was about, he certainly would not have survived as a member of the army council – and he might not have survived at all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">At some stage around then Martin McGuinness established contact with Michael Oatley of the British secret service – this was done via the Derry businessman, Brendan Duddy, and an associate, Denis Bradley.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Meanwhile the list of IRA atrocities lengthened. The worst of these was the Enniskillen bombing on November 8th, 1987 when 11 people were killed and 63 people injured. A 12th victim, Ronnie Hill, died after 13 years in a coma.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">On August 31st, 1994, the IRA announced ceasefire. There is suspicion that Adams got the IRA army council to agree to this by leading members to believe it would be short.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It was always unlikely to have lasted, but the British refusal to allow the republican movement into talks made it almost impossible. On Friday, February 9th 1996, the IRA announced an end to the ceasefire. An hour later a bomb was detonated in London docks, killing two people and injuring 40 others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Between then and July 19th, 1997, Adams’s position within the IRA was precarious. That he managed to prevail over an IRA convention that was seemingly hostile to him and achieved agreement to another ceasefire would probably have overawed Machiavelli. But he did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Violence continued for some years on a more minor scale, although still involving a number of murders, punishment beatings, robberies (notably the Northern Bankl Robbery) and other criminality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There were other embarrassments for him – not least the revelation that his brother, Liam, had sexually abused his own daughter in her childhood. Adams knew about this long before the police did. He also knew his paedophile brother had had access to children in Dundalk and in the Clonard area of Belfast and had done nothing about it. He has acknowledged his culpability on this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">His repeated denial of IRA membership has also done him damage but, I assume he has felt he had to persist with this. Otherwise, he would almost certainly be convicted for membership and would probably be inundated with civil actions by those harmed in the conflict by the IRA.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Southern politics</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">His entry into Southern politics has caused Sinn Féin to improve radically its electoral performance in the South – or at least his entry coincided with that. In the 2007 general election Sinn Féin won 6.9 per cent of the vote. This increased to 9.9 per cent in 2011, and to 13.8 per cent in 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But to some this success has been accompanied by dismay, as Adams has abandoned a radical socialist manifesto he had a large part in drafting for Sinn Féin in 1979. It proclaimed: “The means of production, distribution and exchange must be controlled by the people . . . The state will have complete control over the import and export of capital . . . No person should have the means economically to exploit his fellow man.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now, with Sinn Féin’s programme hardly different from those of the establishment parties, its drive for public office seems insatiable.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Though he has many disreputable legacies, Gerry Adams deserves credit for bringing about the IRA ceasefire in 1994; for persuading the IRA to call a second ceasefire – this time durable – in 1997; for getting the republican movement to accept the Belfast Agreement of 1998, even though it involved the abandonment of its central aim, British withdrawal; and – perhaps most crucially – by bringing about the decommissioning of IRA arms and the eventual disbandment of the IRA.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Vincent Browne</span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-19314754792245164692017-10-15T02:59:00.004-07:002018-02-04T00:58:35.910-08:00A fallen hero: David Walsh<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> David Walsh</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">David Walsh, the sports writer, was one of my hero’s as I admired his journalistic tenacity and talent when he went after another sports hero and American icon that defined a decade or more, Lance Armstrong. He did not stop there. David looked closer to home in Ireland for yet another sporting hero, the cyclist Stephen Roche, and went after him in the year 2000 with the same zeal. David nailed Lance to the wall and rightly so but did not quite pull it off with Stephen. Overall it looked like David had slain Goliath and was mooching around for a more local victory but just not of the same high profile or pedigree. David was now the super hero himself by virtue of going after other imposters. There is always in anyones life a peak, whether it is in age or </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">accomplishments, and the high point of David’s Walsh career was a man called Lance Armstrong. He has now fallen a lot further than Lance ever did or may ever do. This is in regard to David’s behaviour in defending the former Irish Times journalist Tom Humphries.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Tom Humphries</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Humphries went after a thirteen year child to groom her for his own sexual</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">gratification. He had sent her 16,000 texts in a three month period alone during that grooming and finally sexually assaulted her several times in his apartment. He was only found out when he handed his phone to his daughter to be donated to charity. He took out </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">the sim card not realising his texts were still locked into the phone. His daughter read them and they were so graphic in nature that she handed the phone to her mother. At that moment Humphries wife not only knew that her marriage was over but the man that she was married to she had never known at all. She went to the police. That was 2010.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">By 2012 David Walsh was and still is Humphries most ardent public supporter and tried to enlist a few more in that support. He asked another journalist, Paul Howard, to set up a sports magazine just for the benefit of Humphries. Paul turned him down. In a 2012 radio interview he repeatedly called Humphries a fine man. That opinion has not changed since. At least now we know what the definition of a fine man is by David’s standard when it comes to a man like Humphries where even Lance Armstrong or Stephen Roche cannot hold a candle to him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span> Donal Cusack</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">By 2017 David was back in court trumpeting again that Humphries, who is awaiting sentencing, was a great guy along </span>with another fellow trumpeter, Donal Cusack. This character referencing is to try and make sure that Humphries does not get his three hots and a cot in a cell measuring 8 X4 where he belongs. Even in prison there is a moral code when it comes to child molesters. They rank at the bottom. Prisoners locked up inside have shown a more understanding of the problem than those outside underlining the rage that many of them have felt got them locked up in the first place. It must be remembered that Humphries only pleaded guilty just before the trial still looking like a rat in a trap still trying to find a way out.<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Donal, a former all Ireland Cork GAA player, said, in defending his character reference about Humphries, was that he was helping a man in a dark place but failed to provide the same help to the child who had been raped with the same quality of empathy. She </span>was no doubt in a more darker place and may never fully recover. David talked about the good volunteer work that Humphries did for the GAA sports company without considering that it was this very method he used to groom and finally assault a vulnerable child. The girl wanted to play camogie for her local GAA club and Humphries was the helpful coach.<br />
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Walsh said he could not abandon a friend. With a friend like Humphries then these two clowns have all the enemies they want who were once friends by defending him. Did Walsh and Cusack comfort his victim by their actions? No, they just made her sick to her stomach. </div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The only lesson I have to remember is to beware of falling statues as they may hit you on the way down.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Barry Clifford</span></div>
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Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-33606916982728602912017-08-28T11:49:00.003-07:002020-07-26T23:52:36.643-07:00On matters of just boxing: The greatest ever, Floyd Mayweather<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Rocky Marciano<br />
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The great Rocky Marciano, who's record has proved if nothing else that he truly belonged at the top of the list of boxing's greatest, has finally been undone by the now greater Floyd Mayweather. I believe Floyd is the greatest boxer that has ever lived bar none which includes such luminaries as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield to name but a few. What set Floyd apart from all of them, including Rocky, is that he rarely got hit for it was mainly him doing all the hitting. It seems that Floyd shares this opinion of himself as well and said it best as only he can in explaining why that is a fact:<br />
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Mosley v Floyd<br />
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"What are we judging fighters on? Because if we are judging fighters on standing for a cause then it's Ali hands down. But if we are talking about the taking the least punishment and breaking records, it's Floyd Mayweather. Muhammad Ali paved the way for me to be where I am today, he's a legend but when we talk about breaking records we've got to talk about Ali losing his world title to a fighter with only seven fights. I have to take my hat off to Ali but I didn't give this sport 40 years to say that there's another fighter better than me."<br />
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Ortiz V Floyd<br />
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The media called Floyd's opinion trash talk yet it is not just an opinion of Floyd's, it is the unvarnished truth. They grudgingly call him 'perhaps' the greatest fighter of his era. He is the greatest fighter of any era unless someone can conclusively prove otherwise by facts and the stats that has to go with it. Any opinion has to have substance before it can be elevated to anything more than trash talk itself. <br />
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Hatton V Floyd<br />
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Ali, Foreman, Tyson, and Holyfield hit hard and got hit harder. All were knocked out not just once but several times in their careers. Ali would bear the very visible scars of these heavy hitters for the rest of his life and he would be mourned and pitied because of it long before he died.<br />
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Cassius Clay V Sonny Liston<br />
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You cannot define a period of a career alone as the best ever but only a career in entirety. Cheery picking is the time when Ali was 20 years old until they stripped him of his title and his superior fighting skills when he was 26 years old, which was the best Ali ever was or would ever be again. He was the young Mayweather then without doubt. When he made his comeback it was a slow Ali and getting slower, and this at only 29 years old. He had to learn then to be a slugger rather the pugilistic artist he once was. Long before all that, a very young Cassius Clay appeared in a cameo role in the movie 'Requiem Of A Heavyweight' in 1962; Cassius had yet to play the ageing Muhammad Ali who also had to step into a wrestling ring just like the ageing Louis "Mountain" Rivera had, the main character played by Anthony Quinn in the movie, as he tried belatedly to make some much needed money when it really mattered. It was art imitating life in the most tragic and visible sense and one that turned out to be a terrible brutal reality and a postscript of what was yet to come for Ali. <br />
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Muhammad Ali V Inoki <br />
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Floyd is still pretty boy Floyd and bears no scars physically or mentally except those from an understandable wounded pride. And that pride has been attacked on its own merit and little else and led by one very angry media emotion: jealousy. Floyd will beat that too for the only foe anyone has really in life is oneself and he is not into self-flagellation. Every aspect of his spending is analysed with the scrutiny of a mad accountant, every historical domestic spat heightened to more lurid accounts of what really happened. We all have but one life and he lives it as he sees fit and hurts nobody outside of a boxing ring. If it sells newspapers, truth or fiction, then 'what the hell' is the media narrative and don't let the truth get in the way of a good story; not that it ever did anyway. For my dollar I will always bet on Floyd "money" Mayweather as the best there every was.<br />
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Mc Gregor V Floyd<br />
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It was the 21st of September 1955 since Rocky Marciano made 49 and 0, almost 65 years ago. It may well be a lot longer than that before Floyd Mayweather's record of 50 and 0 will be broken. One way or the other his legacy is secure as the greatest inside of any boxing ring; all the rest is just an opinion.<br />
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Barry CliffordBarry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-37492460345623920862017-08-16T02:40:00.001-07:002017-08-16T05:39:13.328-07:00Loneliness<div class="MsoNormal">
For those of us that are fortunate enough not to be lonely it is perhaps timely for us to remember those that are. These people live in Oughterard and throughout Connemara, and don’t stop there, they are everywhere and in every corner of this beautiful planet. They have no significant other in their lives because of feckless children, bereavement, depression, or were on a path where they never got around to having a partner in their lives because of shyness or believing that someone was going to get a share in their land. In the end the lonely persons were to be the only ones on that patch of green, a single person living a life now of regret.<br />
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There are a myriad of other reasons why this is so as well and scribes have spoken about it for centuries and will continue to do so as I do now. To be truly lonely can be comparable to the loneliness of a polar bear adrift in a vast soulless ocean where it is only him or her alone and always will be. </div>
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It can be destroying in any countryside even more so for any person who is without the benefit or the distraction of a busy city life, and where the beautiful scenery is just not enough anymore; it can also lead to early illness and an earlier death. You may have noticed these almost forgotten people from time to time where ‘All the lonely people where do they all come from’ was so poignantly observed in the Beatle’s song Eleanor Rigby. They are all hidden in plain sight.</div>
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Sometimes you might notice them in the check out line of a supermarket, complaining enough just to make conversation. It is often the curmudgeon at the bar giving harsh voice about the young or how it was better in their day. What they are really hoping for, awkwardly so, is the wish that they are interesting enough to you that you will hang around long enough to at least listen a while and see beyond the fact that they talk just a little too much.<br />
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It is sometimes supposed that they seem to drink too much when is in fact the only company or friend that they have, as long as they can afford it. What can anyone, other that observe that loneliness is more than a state of mind, do about it? A lot.</div>
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If we just take one and preferably two hours a week to visit a person on their own, it will not make a whole lot of difference to our week but mean everything to who you choose to visit. It is as simple as that. You won’t have to try too hard to find out where they are. Even just a few phone calls every week to a person that feels they don't even exist anymore takes a lot less effort and time. For the person on their own to be relevant is to breathe itself and encourages the wish to continue to do so.</div>
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If you don't have a lonely person in your life perhaps it is time to find at least one. The local community centre is a good place too start, or the local retirement home, or ask a friend do they know somebody that needs somebody. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone always does.</div>
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Barry CliffordBarry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-43011586358887283592017-08-15T09:02:00.003-07:002017-08-15T12:23:00.142-07:00Ancient Viking Laws For Living<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Be not a braggart for if any work done be praise-worthy, others will sing your praises for you</div>
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The unwise man is awake all night worries over and again. When morning rises he is restless still, his burden as before.</div>
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Go you must. No guest shall stay in one place forever. Love will be lost if you sit too long at a friend’s fire.</div>
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Be your friend’s true friend. Return gift for gift. Repay laughter with laughter again, but repay betrayal with treachery</div>
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Moderately wise a man should be, not too crafty or clever. A learned man’s heart whose learning is too deep seldom sings with joy </div>
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A farm of your own is better, even if small for everyone’s someone at home. Though he has two goats and a coarsely roofed house it is still better than begging.</div>
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A lying tongue had bereft him of living and life, and all without reason or right</div>
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Deceit sleeps with greed</div>
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Even three words of quarreling you shouldn’t have with an inferior</div>
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The coward thinks he will live forever if he keeps away from fighting; but old age won’t grant him a truce even if the spears do. </div>
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Tell never an evil man if misfortunes thee befall<br />
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Wake early if you want another man’s life or land. No lamb for the lazy wolf, no battle won in bed.</div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-42410467505961340102017-08-14T12:53:00.000-07:002019-06-11T11:52:58.624-07:00John Waters said<br />
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John Waters (left)<br />
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">On social welfare recipients:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">“There should be no question, in a free and fair society, of the forced redistribution of earned income to assist those who are, for whatever reason, negative contributors to society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">Imagine how you would feel if, instead of having to subsidise your work- free neighbour, you had to accept direct responsibility by talking him into your home and catering to all his needs. How long would you tolerate him hanging around your sitting room, eating your corn-flakes, and flicking around your Sky package?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">On Paedophlilia:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">“They (the media) don’t regard paedophilia as a serious matter at all. If clerical abuse did not exist in the church, I greatly suspect that we would by now have a campaign to legalise paedophillia from these quarters (the media).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">Was it the case that the thrust for acceptance of paedophilia was stymied only by the emergence of the clerical abuse scandals in the Church, which the left saw as an opportunity to destroy the authority of the Church?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">On closing the Irish embassy in the Vatican because of their cover up of the sexual abuse of children:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">“An opportunistic act of neurotic bigotry by militant atheists seeking to impose their myopic beliefs on the rest of us. The closure of the Irish Embassy in the Vatican is further evidence that we are now governed by the most bigoted, anti- religious administration in the history of the State.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">On secular education:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">“ A ‘secular’ education sets out to produce citizens, consumers and functionaries rather than human beings animated with affection and curiosity. No longer will our children be told that they are Christ’s chosen ones, but instead the accidental offspring of the pointless oozing of primordial slime, units of meat and bone, existing for random junctures by bread and rules in a pointless, meaningless, and indifferent universe.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">They call this ‘rationalisism,’ but have no idea where it will lead. Like chimpanzees with hammers poised over the engine of a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, they gibber their stunted nonsense and set enthusiastically to work.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">Can anyone take this man serious bar himself; he even calls himself a journalist. Finally the Irish Times realised that he was not a journalist either and got rid of the self professed bard. Phew! Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I am free at last. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;">By Barry Clifford</span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-41806249132883707092017-08-14T12:41:00.002-07:002017-08-14T12:41:27.044-07:00Life's looking glass<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">“All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him/her, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy. “</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“ If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“ Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“ In interactions with others, instead of trying to be right, why don’t we try to be kind?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> “Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“ It is impossible to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives the better.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">W W Dyer</span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-31374216671206712682017-08-12T12:15:00.001-07:002017-08-12T12:15:42.119-07:00In matters of war<br />
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<b style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">"The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on"</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Ulysses S Grant. American civil war general<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>"During war, laws are silent"<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Cicero. Roman philosopher and statesman</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>"Let us be frank: provoking military-political instability and other regional conflicts is also a convenient way of deflecting people’s attention from mounting social and economic problems. Regrettably, further attempts of this kind cannot be ruled out."<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Vladimir Putin. leader of Russia</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>"When the swords flash let no idea of love, piety, or even the face of your fathers move you."<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Gallus Julius Caesar. Roman military leader<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>"I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest"<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Napoleon Bonaparte. French general</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">"We made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and all our best generals to edit the newspapers."</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Robert E Lee. American civil war general<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>"It is certain that the two World Wars in which I have participated would not have occurred had we been prepared. It is my belief that adequate preparation on our part would have prevented or materially shortened all our other wars beginning with that of 1812. Yet, after each of our wars, there has always been a great hue and cry to the effect that there will be no more wars, that disarmament is the sure road to health, happiness, and peace; and that by removing the fire department, we will remove fires. These ideas spring from wishful thinking and from the erroneous belief that wars result from logical processes. There is no logic in wars. They are produced by madmen. No man can say when future madmen will reappear. I do not say that there will be no more wars; I devoutly hope that there will not, but I do say that the chances of avoiding future wars will be greatly enhanced if we are ready."<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>George S Patton. American World War 11 general<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">"One death is a tragedy, but a million deaths are a statistic"</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Joseph Stalin. Russian World War 11 leader<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>"My Patience is at an end."<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Adolf Hitler. Leader of Germany 1939<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-28802185144489697792017-08-12T07:30:00.004-07:002017-08-12T07:30:47.147-07:00On matters of hate<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2gL6OuN1RrBv6dIxW4yoPRzSjDNO4PQWu6NGo4uh4axX_tv3GBr1Xh6gy55XwnyCRUpVdWIIjdVTj5o1dsL-6HrqrXUV8B_ak9-OeDqqlNLJrn3AbgVRHkIn_qFVp5X2LEZk0P1lhwrpS/s1600/th-5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2gL6OuN1RrBv6dIxW4yoPRzSjDNO4PQWu6NGo4uh4axX_tv3GBr1Xh6gy55XwnyCRUpVdWIIjdVTj5o1dsL-6HrqrXUV8B_ak9-OeDqqlNLJrn3AbgVRHkIn_qFVp5X2LEZk0P1lhwrpS/s400/th-5.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: georgia;">“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>James Baldwin</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKDRa_hfCNWsSXeosy_BvIslXwYhBfKmRERGvwQH8SQP0auNjVZw001D7LitskflnDPP6AdBvLSKm-qbJ6aS64EWxddb_mB31MqOAMgk3jpClSUyb5bbu5qV4isltzV1Lxe9HsJPtIo_lY/s1600/171592.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKDRa_hfCNWsSXeosy_BvIslXwYhBfKmRERGvwQH8SQP0auNjVZw001D7LitskflnDPP6AdBvLSKm-qbJ6aS64EWxddb_mB31MqOAMgk3jpClSUyb5bbu5qV4isltzV1Lxe9HsJPtIo_lY/s1600/171592.jpg" width="151" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be better than them.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>Elvis Presley</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQEVGtTwAkgnnB0X2dbUhVn6dViJJlZsTrLRw-dUnYqe0XzVo_vUMSEgrc9I5dRhZuPFbwMKSbT9zEUL7VsC5Stk3CW1bcsW_ueer-2FLWcaVdQ59V4GbFx18du9__E2SPRzRJdijEJDQH/s1600/947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQEVGtTwAkgnnB0X2dbUhVn6dViJJlZsTrLRw-dUnYqe0XzVo_vUMSEgrc9I5dRhZuPFbwMKSbT9zEUL7VsC5Stk3CW1bcsW_ueer-2FLWcaVdQ59V4GbFx18du9__E2SPRzRJdijEJDQH/s1600/947.jpg" width="151" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“In time we hate that which we often fear.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>William Shakespeare</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixx6ZsFUd_pJ3e6RFoWxbR3G49y9rQX6dzwBnh6Odn6Ru5Ji2uUgAUGLEADRhBB_m5p6jImDfD7RPshMydZ8h9XiKun7xwCaOIAPGV9UcPPqbId5AIGpS3e-s7qlwnu7FinRSzc1PIL8pZ/s1600/2533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixx6ZsFUd_pJ3e6RFoWxbR3G49y9rQX6dzwBnh6Odn6Ru5Ji2uUgAUGLEADRhBB_m5p6jImDfD7RPshMydZ8h9XiKun7xwCaOIAPGV9UcPPqbId5AIGpS3e-s7qlwnu7FinRSzc1PIL8pZ/s1600/2533.jpg" width="151" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>Graham Greene</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfntNUgfcLrOazI9opXvfynSDMVrdjRDMJzqEhdNsG2m6kT1tgi23ZcODLI-XGdTlu7BUXcJExydHED8-iOzQsyIc4jo6cCDU4wMDChaKBIwpXINegiRGQiYFplrQU6HrbtjiYJerIEcPg/s1600/3953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfntNUgfcLrOazI9opXvfynSDMVrdjRDMJzqEhdNsG2m6kT1tgi23ZcODLI-XGdTlu7BUXcJExydHED8-iOzQsyIc4jo6cCDU4wMDChaKBIwpXINegiRGQiYFplrQU6HrbtjiYJerIEcPg/s1600/3953.jpg" width="151" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“People hate as they love, unreasonably.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>William Makepeace Thackery</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span><span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“Those who hate rain hate life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>Dejan Stojanovic</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“September 11… I will never forget feeling scared and vulnerable… I will never forget feeling the deep sad loss of so many lives… I will never forget the smell of the smoke that reached across the water and delivered a deep feeling of doom into my gut… I will never forget feeling the boosted sense of unity and pride… I will never forget seeing the courageous actions of so many men and women… I will never forget seeing people of all backgrounds working together in community… I will never forget seeing what hate can destroy… I will never forget seeing what love can heal…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>Steve Maraboli</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“See what's inside a drop of water. The whole seed of the universe. Come, come. See what's inside a drop of blood. The composition of life. It's all there. Hate as well. We approach the mystery of life, but it's impossible to understand the mystery of hate. The kind of hate that causes people not only to kill, but to want to erase you from the census of births. I have to concentrate on that mystery. Read everything there is. It has to be in a drop of blood. It has to have its chemistry.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>Manual Rivas</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“This is what you know about someone you have to hate: he charges you with his crime and castigates himself through you.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>Philip Roth</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";">David Mitchell</span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "georgia";"><b>Sourced</b></span>Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-840767831576196722017-08-12T04:39:00.001-07:002017-08-12T04:39:34.155-07:00It seemed a good idea at the time<br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;">As I’ve wandered through the </span><a href="http://www.forbes.com/business/" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #0e204c;">business</span></a><span style="font-family: georgia;"> landscape over the past 4 decades, I’ve often observed people making business decisions that I was pretty sure were going to end up somewhere between bad and appallingly, astronomically bad. And I’ve certainly been guilty of making a few of those kinds of decisions myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Almost without exception, my bad decisions and those I’ve seen others make resulted from one of three things. The decision-maker: 1) didn’t bother to get all the relevant facts; 2) made invalid assumptions based on ego, wishful thinking, or fear; and/or 3) didn’t trust the input of their own advisors. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">As you read through the following, feel free to be entertained and feel superior – but I’d suggest you also take them as cautionary tales; great examples of what not to do:</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">1) How many zeros?</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> In 1977, the senior execs at 20th Century <a href="http://www.forbes.com/companies/fox/"><span style="color: #0e204c;">Fox</span></a> made an astonishingly short-sighted decision. They signed over all product merchandising rights for <i>any and all Star Wars films</i> to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/george-lucas/"><span style="color: #0e204c;">George Lucas</span></a> – in exchange for a mere $20,000 cut in Lucas’ studio paycheck. The combined revenue from merchandising is estimated to have exceeded three billion dollars, and continues to grow annually, making it the most lucrative deal ever struck between an individual and a corporate studio in entertainment history. (This one is courtesy of my wonderful reader <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6128092&authType=OPENLINK&authToken=uyla&locale=en_US&srchid=89473251380921798906&srchindex=1&srchtotal=1&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A89473251380921798906%2CVSRPtargetId%3A6128092%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary"><span style="color: #0e204c;">Dr. Ilona Jerabek</span></a>, from an article on her <a href="http://www.queendom.com/articles/articles.htm?a=56#sthash.LG80WYww.dpuf"><span style="color: #0e204c;">website</span></a>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">2) And your hair’s weird, too</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";">. In 1962, the Beatles auditioned at the London office of Decca Records. The executive in charge of talent rejected them: he thought they sounded too much like a currently popular group called The Shadows (who?), and he told Brian Epstein, their manager, “We don’t like your boys’ sound. Groups are out; four-piece groups with guitars particularly are finished.” Well over 2 <i>billion</i> Beatles albums have since sold worldwide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">3) We’re a serious business, thank you very much</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";">. In 1876, William Orten was President of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/companies/western-union/"><span style="color: #0e204c;">Western Union</span></a> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/companies/western-union/"><b><span style="color: #0d6201; font-family: "arial"; text-decoration: none;">WU</span></b><span style="color: #0d6201; font-family: "arial";"> </span><span style="color: #0d6201; font-family: "arial"; text-decoration: none;">+0.72%</span></a>, which had a monopoly on the most advanced communications technology available, the telegraph. Orten was offered the patent on a new invention, the telephone, for $100,000 (worth about $2M in current dollars). He considered the whole idea ridiculous, and wrote directly to Alexander Graham Bell, saying, ”After careful consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities… What use could this company make of an electrical toy?” Two years later, after the telephone began to take off, Orten realized the magnitude of his mistake, and spent years (unsuccessfully) challenging Bell’s patents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">4) Say cheese!</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> The Eastman Kodak company developed the first digital camera in 1975, then proceeded to sit on it (and the core technology for the cell phone, as well). They decided not to develop it because they were afraid it would cannibalize their film business (at one point they had a 90% share of the US film market.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">5) Say cheese, part II</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";">. In the early ’80s, Fuji entered the US film marketplace with lower-priced film and supplies, but Kodak management believed that US consumers would never abandon their homegrown brand. In 1984, Kodak passed on the chance to be the official film of the 1984 Los Angeles <a href="http://www.forbes.com/olympics/"><span style="color: #0e204c;">Olympics</span></a>. Fuji won the rights, which gave them the strong foothold they needed to catalyze their growth in the US marketplace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Kodak never fully recovered from these and other poor decisions; in 2012 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">6) Did anybody phone home?</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> In 1981 Amblin Productions called the Mars Company and offered a simple cross-promotional opportunity: How about if we use M&Ms in our new film, giving you free publicity, and in return, you can promote our film in your packaging? The advertising and marketing folks at Mars said “No.” The film was ET the Extra-Terrestrial, and the rest is history. Reeses Pieces, the not-nearly-as-well-known M&M competitor, saw sales jump 65% in the months after the film was released featuring their product.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">7) Hot under the collar</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia";">. In 2000, Gerald Levin, the chairman of Time Warner, was so confident in the deal he had made to merge with America Online, that he decided to forego placing a collar on the transaction. A collar enables the seller—in this case Time Warner—to revisit the terms of the transaction if the buyer’s stock falls below a certain price. Almost as soon as the merger was announced, and before it was completed, the Internet bubble burst and AOL shares plunged 50%. Without a collar, Time Warner wouldn’t be able to renegotiate the deal. Time Warner execs urged Levin to re-think the deal, but he didn’t. The rest is history, and Time Warner shareholders are still paying for his stubbornness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Of course, it’s easy to see the folly of these decisions in retrospect; hindsight is 20/20, and no one can make the right decision all the time. But I suspect if each of these unfortunate executives had approached these decisions with a little more curiosity, a little more open-mindedness, and a little less certainty about the rightness of their position….we might all be using Western Union Kodak smartphones.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana";">By Erika Anderson </span></b></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-89525575388808006532017-08-04T11:56:00.003-07:002017-08-10T03:03:35.455-07:00Morning White Dove<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ72aBO0usp1noOOV4jZIpHj_zHvpLDJ58k999CCbAZiCXofbVNckL2AIvpobdb_fJjCmHjLBq3j8mok1PfWuQ2l86Ub3ZzH3vqFH0GqXCo0egDJt3w8QYp2MhZgiScFHev3rlGLlC-CFi/s1600/ELVIS-1969-elvis-presley-7905519-408-408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ72aBO0usp1noOOV4jZIpHj_zHvpLDJ58k999CCbAZiCXofbVNckL2AIvpobdb_fJjCmHjLBq3j8mok1PfWuQ2l86Ub3ZzH3vqFH0GqXCo0egDJt3w8QYp2MhZgiScFHev3rlGLlC-CFi/s400/ELVIS-1969-elvis-presley-7905519-408-408.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "verdana";"> Elvis Presley</span><br />
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "verdana";">A full-blooded Cherokee Indian named Morning White Dove was born in 1800. The white in the name referred to her status as a friendly Indian. Those that were called ‘red’ were classed as warlike or who had sided with the British redcoats during the American revolution. All this was lost, one way or another, on Morning White Dove for she was friendly enough that by the time she turned eighteen years old she married a white southerner named William Mansell. For him it was an easy choice made even easier for there was not too many white women on the America frontier back then to choose from. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "verdana";">William learned much from the union. He gained old Indian knowledge of the terrain, of forests and prairies, crops and game, medicine lore, healing plants, and the ‘setting of broken bones’. Morning White Dove in return had got a hard working man, a provider with some ambition, and that could sing a song or two when pressed. The world gained from them much more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "verdana";">The mix of this handsome couple would help define the looks and spirit of one man many years later, for without them he would never have been born at all. Morning White Dove and William Mansell would go on to become proud parents of three children whose eldest was a son called John Mansell. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "verdana";">In his turn, John would go on to become the great- great grandfather of Elvis Presley.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtM8A2b5clgdLP3T9kHk_4YGvY6jFMBq4LUN9Ne9bFPCk7j-0IfHdEMHBCkDPffHerZjcLs6t-EhKrbRJ3YNElgRxSK1E60_rWGmT2tDIRZEzPBdTEfbPwQLy2mBC6VsPEnlr8zhV5ejxJ/s1600/gladys_elvis_vernon_1937_208_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtM8A2b5clgdLP3T9kHk_4YGvY6jFMBq4LUN9Ne9bFPCk7j-0IfHdEMHBCkDPffHerZjcLs6t-EhKrbRJ3YNElgRxSK1E60_rWGmT2tDIRZEzPBdTEfbPwQLy2mBC6VsPEnlr8zhV5ejxJ/s1600/gladys_elvis_vernon_1937_208_1.jpg" width="371" /></a></div>
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A very young Elvis Presley</div>
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Barry Clifford</div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740884086966617011.post-51963764698656190862017-08-04T11:44:00.005-07:002017-08-04T11:44:56.879-07:00The power of the written word<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-9NPaTGJZks5LTsXGviuwWtSgEzuMJ35S2uaR697VYXzBXwprxqnfoZJzcXzEpd6zmi1Wk_ugo7WTKhJECV3P3XectNCoTTa2WYn0O3Xd39_yfOl-KftKS_PnEHj8L_WlS-mwollvx9zR/s1600/th-3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-9NPaTGJZks5LTsXGviuwWtSgEzuMJ35S2uaR697VYXzBXwprxqnfoZJzcXzEpd6zmi1Wk_ugo7WTKhJECV3P3XectNCoTTa2WYn0O3Xd39_yfOl-KftKS_PnEHj8L_WlS-mwollvx9zR/s400/th-3.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Wuthering Heights by Emile Bronte:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">Perhaps it’s done already, perhaps they have said me already, perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, it will be the silence, where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest than I go to than I have ever known.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>The Dead by James Joyce:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>The Stranger by Albert Camus:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">And I too felt ready to live my life again. As if this great outburst of anger had purged all my ills, killed all my hopes, I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;"><b>Trainspotting by Irvine Welch</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">He had done what he had wanted to do. He could now never go back to Leith, to Edinburgh, even to Scotland, ever again. There, he could not be anything other than he was. Now, free from them all, for good, he could be what he wanted to be. He’d stand or fall alone. This thought both terrified and excited him as he contemplated life in Amsterdam.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4e50; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13pt;">Sourced</span></div>
Barry Cliffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17772554388120740675noreply@blogger.com0