GOP Nominee 2012 - Pt. 5

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I've always rolled my eyes and grimaced at Bono's "America is an idea" bluster. (Particularly when he phrases it--and of course he's said it in some form or another many, many times--as "Ireland, where I come from, is a country, not an idea. But America is an idea!") As if Irishness weren't also an idea, and as if Americans weren't as subject as anyone else to the pull of a place, a legend and a way of life that's intimately known and familiar. I know that's not where he's headed with it, but still, there's a certain irony in someone from a country that's suffered so much from imperialism arguing for a cosmopolitan humanitarianism on the basis of a binary like that. This is a digression though.


Thanks for the brief overview of "the New Zealand idea," Axver; that was very informative.
 
Many Americans are lucky if they even know how many U.S. states there are.

Also a good point.

When I was in primary school in New Zealand, one year we had a trainee teacher working in our class who was from the US. Our actual teacher thought this would be a great chance to teach us about world geography, so we had to do a report on two countries - the US (or perhaps it was a state of our choice within the US, I forget now) and one other country.

... said trainee taught us that the US has 52 states. :facepalm:

I recall trying to figure out what the two extra states were (I think I put down DC and Puerto Rico, and I couldn't remember if Long Island or Rhode Island was a state) before this misinformation was corrected.

...and they were a trainee teacher, you said?

Ay, yi, yi...:crack:. That is pathetic. I'm sorry.

Haha, fortunately it was just things like "wow, is the whole country that beautiful?" (yes, yes it is),

:drool: That's all the more I need to know.

Did I mention I'm dying to visit that part of the world someday?

"do you know anybody who was in the movies?" (yes, yes I do), and "did you see any of the sets?" (yes, yes I did).

Ooh, wow, really? Neat! Would love to hear the stories behind that sometime.

(Is this the point where I admit that I've never seen more than a few moments of any of those movies at best :reject:?)

Agree with yolland, kickass other post of yours there, by the way.
 
I've always rolled my eyes and grimaced at Bono's "America is an idea" bluster. (Particularly when he phrases it--and of course he's said it in some form or another many, many times--as "Ireland, where I come from, is a country, not an idea. But America is an idea!") As if Irishness weren't also an idea, and as if Americans weren't as subject as anyone else to the pull of a place, a legend and a way of life that's intimately known and familiar. I know that's not where he's headed with it, but still, there's a certain irony in someone from a country that's suffered so much from imperialism arguing for a cosmopolitan humanitarianism on the basis of a binary like that. This is a digression though.
We Irish are a self-loathing people, you have to understand.
 
Thanks for the brief overview of "the New Zealand idea," Axver; that was very informative.

Thanks yolland! Apologies for the thread hijack. I know this is getting terribly off-topic!

:drool: That's all the more I need to know.

Did I mention I'm dying to visit that part of the world someday?

You'll never regret a trip to the South Island in particular. I'm going there next week and I'm thoroughly excited. It's mostly for work, but I'll be in the middle of a wine region so ... let's just say I'm leaving space in the suitcase for souvenirs.

Ooh, wow, really? Neat! Would love to hear the stories behind that sometime.

Oh it's really nothing exciting. I know a few people who were extras - e.g. my friend's mother and her horse were in the battle of Pelennor Fields - and one of my aunts works in film and television production so she did a bit of behind-the-scenes work (don't remember what now ... I've only seen her a couple of times in the last decade). Plenty of scenes were shot near my hometown. Part of Helm's Deep was built in a quarry about ten minutes from my father's place, so we drove past that a fair bit.
 
More Joe The Plumber? :yawn:

Ryan says he clings to guns and religion, invokes 'Joe the Plumber'
By NBC’s Alex Moe

CARNEGIE Pa. -- At a steel manufacturer in Western Pennsylvania Tuesday, Congressman Paul Ryan took some swipes at President Obama, serving up red meat on guns and religion and even Joe the Plumber and "spread the wealth."

“Hey, I’m a Catholic deer-hunter," Ryan said at Beaver Steel just outside Pittsburgh. "I am happy to be clinging to my guns and my religion."

The comments the presumptive GOP vice-presidential nominee made referenced remarks Obama made on the campaign trail back in 2008.

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said then speaking at a San Francisco fundraiser four year ago. "And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate, and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Making his debut in the Keystone State today, Ryan -- an avid Green Bay Packers fan -- came out waving a Pittsburgh Steelers' "Terrible Towel” as he entered the venue with more than 2,000 people in attendance and proclaimed his passion for football.

“Wow. You know, these things are intimidating on TV,” Ryan admitted about the gold towel he then placed in his back pocket.

Steelers owner Dan Rooney, by the way, is currently serving as President Obama's ambassador to Ireland.

Speaking in front of a large “We did build IT!” sign, the seven-term congressman also gave the crowd another 2008 flashback, telling the crowd about Joe the Plumber.

“You know, every now and then President Obama sort of drops his veil," Ryan said. "He’s less coy about his philosophy. He sort of reveals his true governing policy, what he really believes. Remember back in 2008, remember the guy Joe the Plumber? Remember when he said, you know, ‘We wanna spread the wealth around’? It’s this belief that the economy is some fixed pie, that there’s only just so much money in America, it’s fixed, and that the job of the government is to redistribute the slices of the pie. That’s not true.”

These lines from Ryan on President Obama’s 2008 campaign are new to the congressman’s stump speech.
 
I'm pretty sure any Wisconsin politician would be stoned to death if they dared admit their favorite football team was anything other than the Packers.
 
Here's a link to audio of Irish President Michael D. Higgins arguing with a Tea Party member (American, of course) over healthcare and foreign policy.

A Tea Partier Decided To Pick A Fight With A Foreign President. It Didn't Go So Well.

This is the original radio show:
Newstalk Media Player

*Stands up and applauds* Another reason to love the Irish right here. Holy shit, Higgins smoked him.

Can we find some sort of loophole or something to get him on the presidential ballot this year? Or at least working in the Obama adminstration? Please?
 
Higgins is no-one's fool. He has long standing links with the US and is not coming from the default euro leftie position of scorning America but not really knowing anything about the place. Remember seeing him in the Fitzpatrick's Hotel NYC in October 2001.

I should point out however that the role of the Irish president is largely ceremonial. And this interview was given before he was elected president and before the campaigns for the 2011 Irish presidential election had even started. It would not be appropriate for an elected president to engage in this type of heated commentary and neither would he do so. If he were to give an interview on a US radio station now it would be carefully scripted and would talk about innocous matters such as trade and cultural links.
 
I'm sorry :wink:

You can only get away with that because you are too. Btw I can't believe you're only 19 and in college, you just come across so well on here. So smart and so well spoken, I thought you were so much older. I wish I could be 19 again, I think that was my favorite age. Enjoy it while you can :)
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
You can only get away with that because you are too. Btw I can't believe you're only 19 and in college, you just come across so well on here. So smart and so well spoken, I thought you were so much older. I wish I could be 19 again, I think that was my favorite age. Enjoy it while you can :)

Awww, that's very nice of you. I appreciate it. :)
 
I try to participate in these discussions based on the merit of the arguments. That is why I never write things like, "I can't believe I am agreeing with (insert name here)."

But being on here for any length of time we do become familiar with people's backgrounds and situations. So I do put people's comments in context to how I come to perceive them.

Anyways, I always thought digitize was in his 30s.




(you know how you separate the Irish boys from the Irish girls?)
 
I'm Irish too, I have plenty of relatives there - county Mayo. Been lucky enough to travel to Ireland three times.

Wow, he's pretty cool. Love that accent too.

You're Irish? In that case, can you name the current Irish prime minister (without Googling).
 
Can't remember the name, but I don't think that's a test for being Irish

My great grandparents came here from Ireland straight off the boat, I have cousins there, I visited the remains of my great grandparents' stone house there, and my mother has Irish (dual) citizenship. I was also told when I went there that I looked more Irish than the Irish, of course I was much younger then and it was by a cute Irish guy. So it could have been a load of crap.

I don't keep up on all the current events and people there but I proudly consider myself to be Irish, even though it's not 100%. My mother is 100% but I can't help who she married, unfortunately. Bane of my existence that I can't go back in a time machine and change that.
 
Can't remember the name, but I don't think that's a test for being Irish

My great grandparents came here from Ireland straight off the boat, I have cousins there, I visited the remains of my great grandparents' stone house there, and my mother has Irish (dual) citizenship. I was also told when I went there that I looked more Irish than the Irish, of course I was much younger then and it was by a cute Irish guy. So it could have been a load of crap.

I don't keep up on all the current events and people there but I proudly consider myself to be Irish, even though it's not 100%. My mother is 100% but I can't help who she married, unfortunately. Bane of my existence that I can't go back in a time machine and change that.

It's possible that you yourself are entitled to Irish citizenship.



If your parent has already become an Irish citizen through FBR (or Naturalisation, Post-Nuptial Declaration, or Adoption, etc) before you were born, you are entitled to claim Irish citizenship through them.

If your parent became an Irish citizen through FBR before 1st July 1986, you can claim Irish citizenship through that parent, even if you were born before they became an Irish citizen. This only applies if you were born after 17 July 1956.

Department of Foreign Affairs


Btw, Enda Kenny, the current Irish Prime Minister, is from Mayo, so it wasn't a very difficult question! Can you name the leader of the 1916 Easter Rising.
 
(you know how you separate the Irish boys from the Irish girls?)

with a crowbar


An Irishman who had a little too much to drink is driving home from the city one night and, of course, his car is weaving violently all over the road.

A cop pulls him over.

‘So,’ says the cop to the driver. ‘Where have ya been?’

‘Why, I’ve been to the pub of course,’ slurs the drunk.

‘Well,’ says the cop, ‘it looks like you’ve had quite a few to drink this evening.’

‘I did, all right,’ the drunk says with a smile.

‘Did you know,’ says the cop, standing straight and folding his arms across his chest,
‘that a few intersections back, your wife fell out of your car?’

‘Oh! Thank heavens,’ sighs the drunk. ‘For a minute there, I thought I’d gone deaf.’
 
An Irishman who had a little too much to drink is driving home from the city one night and, of course, his car is weaving violently all over the road.

A cop pulls him over.

‘So,’ says the cop to the driver. ‘Where have ya been?’

‘Why, I’ve been to the pub of course,’ slurs the drunk.

‘Well,’ says the cop, ‘it looks like you’ve had quite a few to drink this evening.’

‘I did, all right,’ the drunk says with a smile.

‘Did you know,’ says the cop, standing straight and folding his arms across his chest,
‘that a few intersections back, your wife fell out of your car?’

‘Oh! Thank heavens,’ sighs the drunk. ‘For a minute there, I thought I’d gone deaf.’

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

Its best to say that I am an American of Irish descent. I cannot claim Irish citizenship in any way, as my grandparents were born in the U.S. Even so, my family talk about Ireland as if we left the country yesterday. :lol:

I think people in America, particularly those in immigrant-heavy areas, are more likely to say they're Irish, Italian, Polish, Chinese, etc. because the reminder that we're an immigrant nation is always there. I once lived in a small town in upstate NY and the idea of identifying as one of those nationalities was odd. That was also probably because in smaller areas, people are more likely to be mixed European than having descended from one or two nationalities.
 
It's possible that you yourself are entitled to Irish citizenship.

Department of Foreign Affairs


Btw, Enda Kenny, the current Irish Prime Minister, is from Mayo, so it wasn't a very difficult question! Can you name the leader of the 1916 Easter Rising.

No need to be a killjoy dude, but we all know Bertie is taoiseach for life, we just pretend not to know.

I never really like the conversations about how Irish are you, i've had plenty of people from the Republic claim i'm not really Irish since i'm from the North. But then again most people's grandparents were born at a time when they still would have been British citizens...
 
Really dude (don't get offended by that, just one of my fave expressions)? So I have to pass/fail your test? Yeah, I'd probably suck at Jeopardy too. Maybe you can ask digitize, he's Irish and probably much smarter than I am.

They still let me in your country three times and I didn't have to pass any test. If I could afford it I'd go back as often as I could, haven't been since the 90's. I'm Irish :shrug: My mother didn't become a citizen early enough for me to qualify.
 
You can only get away with that because you are too. Btw I can't believe you're only 19 and in college, you just come across so well on here. So smart and so well spoken, I thought you were so much older. I wish I could be 19 again, I think that was my favorite age. Enjoy it while you can :)

Wow, digitize is 19? Even I thought he was about 30 years old! :)
 
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