John Waters misses the point - again

In the Irish Times, John Waters pontificates on the recent #picturegate scandal and misses the point with molelike precision.

...infantile obsession with toilet humour... deep animus towards politicians"... The only amusing thing here is Casby’s deluded belief that he has something to say. His response is typical of a public discourse almost fatally degraded by internet auto-eroticism and an obsession with what is called “comedy”. His works are crude, unfunny, vindictive, without intrinsic content and wholly lacking in artistic merit.

They would never have been heard of had the national broadcaster not misplaced its editorial instincts and, faced with an alternative between soberly reporting a minor crime and engaging in a snide attack on the Taoiseach, chose the latter.

etc etc ranting on artistic merit and violations of national security.

The actual point is government interference in public broadcasting, censorship, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

Waters may not like Conor Casby's pictures but Casby has the right to caricature public figures.

Just as the Irish Times does each day.

RTE's craven apologies stink of government interference. They are not even willing to stand by their own reports.

Gardaí raided a radio station.

Gardaí said the orders came from the powers that be.

Gardaí confiscated privately owned material.

That's the point and Waters missed it by a mile. Moron.

Lost in translation

What a day for the gardaí. Ireland's worst driver turns out to be a really idiotic translation error. Polish is the second most spoken language in Ireland. Perhaps some training might be in order for our boys and girls in blue.

The Beeb reports:

He had been wanted from counties Cork to Cavan after racking up scores of speeding tickets and parking fines.

However, each time the serial offender was stopped he managed to evade justice by giving a different address.

But then his cover was blown.

It was discovered that the man every member of the Irish police's rank and file had been looking for - a Mr Prawo Jazdy - wasn't exactly the sort of prized villain whose apprehension leads to an officer winning an award.

In fact he wasn't even human.

"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division.

It gives me so much confidence to think that these are the people who enforce our laws, especially in these troubled times. So very confident!

I'm not not talking to him

It is a good rule of thumb to allow the rumours to be circulated before issuing the press release denying their substance. One has to allow the rumour to marinate to bring out its full press release potential. The Irish Times reports:

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has dismissed suggestions that there are tensions between him and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan over the Government’s response to the dramatic shortfall in State revenue.

Mr Cowen said reports about divergences of view between the two men, which he had read, had “no basis in fact”.

“There are no tensions between us at all,” he said. “What we are talking about is the Cabinet making decisions based on proposals that will come from the partners in the normal way.”

Somebody needs a good PR officer or at the very least some media training. Has anyone got PJ's phone number?

Why is it that whenever I hear a government minister deny anything that I immediately think the opposite is true. It's like the time, I was selected for an award and the minister said in front of the group of recipients that none of us used pull to get these awards. After the ceremony, everyone was asking who it was that got daddy to pull some strings.

The government should look into recruiting people who don't act like a used car salesman trying to offload a dud on a woman because he believes that women are that gullible.