Reflections

I was a teenager in the early 90’s and back then I didn’t have access to the Internet and its multitude of pirated music. No, back in those days I inserted a blank cassette into my bulky sony stereo, pressed the record button during a radio chart show and  just walked away. Not a very sophisticated solution (but hey it worked!) and I inevitably ended up with 40 minutes of bad early 90’s pop music, a lot of commercials and around two full news updates.  But my laziness reaped undeserved rewards because a decade later I found these old cassettes pleasantly nostalgic and so played them regularly.

There was however one particular news story that would startle me whenever the disembodied voice of the news broadcaster read the details. The story concerned an IRA bomb that exploded in a Belfast chipper killing ten people. These days, the event is little more than a footnote in the history books but whenever that news program was played, the sheer futility and cowardliness of the act would startle me anew. Occansionally I forgot the story was an old recording and would think to myself “What?! That is STILL happening?”

So when I heard the radio news this morning, my first thought was to check the tape deck for an old recorded cassette from the 90’s :- 

The two victims were collecting a pizza delivery at the Massereene base near Antrim when the gunmen pulled up in a vehicle and opened fire.

Four other people, including two pizza delivery men, were wounded in the shooting.

After an initial burst of gunfire, the attackers shot the victims as they lay on the ground. The two soldiers killed were in their 20s and due to fly out for duty in Afghanistan.

Source: Irish Independent.ie

These are the first soldiers killed in Northern Ireland in nearly 12 years. The two critically wounded pizza delivery men are apparently deemed legitimate targets for “collaborating with British rule”. Those familiar with this conflict will not be too shocked by this stupidly. Young Irish girls have been shot for dating British soldiers and suspected collaborators were executed in their beds - all for the grand goal of a united 32 country Ireland.

Thankfully these murders were condemned by most parties north and south of the border and by most posters on the popular Irish politics forum Politcs.ie. (I would recommend reading the link for reaction as the news story unfolded).

The nationalists however were unrepentant. Here is a snapshot of the nationalistic responses:

I can’t find it in myself to be sympathetic. I hate anyone being dead but foreign soldiers on my land? Sorry, despite the British newspapers that run our land I cannot sympathise.

But by christ , regardless of the endless snivelling ive read here from poor excuses for Irishmen im proud of our boys tonight . I know we’ll all be feckin interned by this time next week and some of us will be assassinated by ordes special forces in retaliation , but someone made one hell of a stand against the dirty stinking occupation of my country tonight and im damn feckin proud of them . I was out tonight with my neighbours and ive never seen morale as high in years .

god love the rest of yes , hope your pillows arent too damp from the sobbing

Rest easy mate….no irish soldiers fell in this attack….was only brit soldiers fell…….like dominoes from what i hear

Roll on next week when some fenian taxi driver gets 5 in the head

Ethical Idolatry.

I am an Atheist. I am an Atheist for multiple reasons but perhaps most importantly, I am an Atheist simply because there is no good argument for the existence of the Christian/whoever God. However, I  do find the theologian concept of idolatry useful as a ethical thinking tool.  Allow me to explain.

Ethical Idolatry is the worship of a value or idea itself, instead of striving for the goal of human flourishing.

Values are important. They define who we are as individuals; how we view the world and ourselves; and in some cases, the meaning we give our lives.  Values must be subjected to human reason. They must explicitly identified, poked, prodded, molded and humbled by reason.

However the corruption occurs when a value becomes dogma and placed beyond honest inquiry, guarded by layers of protective offense taking, group polarisation and ad hominem attacks.  The value itself becomes an all important source of self-identify and self esteem. The actual goal and original purpose of the value is forgotten or becomes a rationalisation for unsupportable extremes.

The environmentalist who would rather protect a rock formation than the people who are living on that rock, is worshipping the value not the goal. The politically correct ideologist who rushes excitedly to defend every racial minority simply because they are a minority, is worshipping the idea, not the goal. And the nationalists who support this attack is worshipping the idea, not the goal.  Two men died and four were seriously injured because a handful of idiots did not approve of the colour of a flag flying over a building.

Ethical questions must be aimed at ensuring both communities in the north can coexist peacefully and are not condemned to a endless circle of murder and retaliation. A good start would be a move away from the harmful identity politics of nationalism and religion in favour of an more rational humanitarian approach.

Ironically, I suspect we will see an united Europe before an united Ireland.

Sam Norton over at Elizaphanian is prone to Victor Meldrew moments. Well, I experienced such a moment after stumbling across this:

Some time ago the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin told a curious inquirer that, yes, it was indeed true that there were plans to build new lavatories in one of their buildings which would have a deliberate peculiarity.

They were being installed so that Muslims using them would not have to face Mecca while they were seated on the loo. This is important business for Muslims, who are enjoined by their code to refrain from relieving themselves unless it is absolutely essential. Under the Qadaahul Haajah code the natural processes of the human body for disposing of its waste are regarded as unclean; so they are advised to pray upon entering and leaving the lavatory, to enter with the left foot first and to leave by first stepping out with the right and neither to face nor to turn their back on Mecca when they are inside.

Source: Belfast Telegraph

Special toilets for Muslims? I don’t belive it!

The voice, in the context of grammar, is how the main verb operates in the sentence. A sentence is written in the active voice if the subject actively performs the verb; it is actively “doing” the verb. 

In most cases, it is desirable to write using the active voice because doing so results in stronger, more assertive writing which readers will find more engaging. In contrast, using the passive voice results in wordy sentences using weaker phrases beginning with am/was/by/been etc.

Writing passively is however useful when you need to hide the actor or obscure the action.  For example a business email may read ‘Unfortunately during the final stages, several important issues were overlooked’. This sentence is using the passive voice because the subject (important issues) is not performing the action. Indeed, the actual actor is obscured. The sentence written in the active voice would read ’Unfortunately during the final stages, theObserver overlooked several important issues’. Here the subject (theObserver) is actively performing the verb ‘overlooked’.

How to spot a passive sentance.

1) Look for a verb form that consists of both the past participle and a form of ‘to be’ that acts upon the subject.  It is impossible to form a passive sentence without using a to be verb such as ‘is/ am/ are/ was/were /be/being/ been’.

2) Is the subject actively performing the action? Or is the subject passive and receiving the action? 

3) Can you add the prepositional phrase ‘by the X’ after the sentence?

How to convert from the passive to active voice.

Step One: Locate the person or thing performing the action. This noun may be part of a prepositional phrase or even absent, but implied, in the sentence.

Step Two:  Convert this noun into the subject performing the action. Usually the subject of the original sentence becomes the object of the revised sentence.