Ian O'Doherty: How very dare he!
As things stand, it is quite possible that Longford businessman Gerry Kennedy may face prosecution.
And the reason?
Well, as you no doubt know by now, Kennedy was woken up in the early hours of Thursday morning by a gang of Travellers who were breaking into his business, which is adjacent to his house.
Kennedy immediately confronted them and, using his legally held shotgun, fired a round which struck one of the Travellers and forced him to be hospitalised.
This is obviously an outrage -- after all, what has the world come to when a bunch of burglars cannot go about their business without fear of someone shooting them?
Interestingly, Pavee Point and all the other taxpayer-funded advocacy groups seem to have gone uncharacteristically quiet on this issue.
What's the matter, lads?
After all, you're not normally this slow when it comes to complaining of anti-Traveller sentiments.
Oh well, I guess it's their culture, innit?
That's hardly fair dinkum
Most of us love Australians -- when they're in Australia, that is.
Yup, they're a hardy bunch and can give and take a bit of banter -- although I have discovered that some of them are still sore about our heroic victory over them in the World Cup, which makes it all the sweeter.
Well, some of them are a hardy bunch, I should say.
Geoff Stephens is another matter entirely.
Our brave hero left Australia 27 years ago and has been living and working in the UK ever since.
Well, maybe not working -- he has been off work from Kent County Council for the last few years because, he claims, he has been the victim of a vile campaign of racial abuse and harassment.
Now, what sort of intimidation and grief was he given by his colleagues?
Well, according to him, he was asked: "If my girlfriend's name was Sheila" and to make matters even more intolerable, he was also instructed to "throw another shrimp on the barbie" by some of his workmates.
This is obviously an absolute outrage and as he says himself: "I've only been able to sleep for three hours a night since August, and the physical and mental exhaustion will eventually kill me."
Wow -- for a nation made up of convicts and reprobates, they seem to have become rather more sensitive than we might expect.
Although he didn't do himself any favours in his campaign against racial stereotyping when he told one reporter: "I thought strewth and couldn't believe it! It's a breach of my human rights."
Strewth? Who the hell says 'strewth' these days but an Aussie?
Well, as long as they're being reasonable
You really have to wonder about the Obama administration at times.
And the latest stick the Right is using to batter him with is an interesting one.
As you may have heard, things are getting rather testy in Afghanistan after it emerged that some copies of the Koran had been accidentally burned in an American air base.
When the news of the accidental burning broke, the locals went snooker loopy and started rioting and then, last Thursday, an Afghan soldier killed two NATO troops in reprisal for the perceived insult.
The newly invigorated Taliban have hopped on this PR coup and have issued a series of increasingly bellicose statements saying: "Our brave men need to kill the foreigners . . . to beat and maim and drive them from our land."
So, in the face of murderous actions from a bunch of nutters who are receiving billions of dollars in American aid, Obama came out and strongly condemned them, didn't he?
Um, no not quite.
Instead he released a statement "humbly apologising" for the burning of the Koran.
Yup, that sort of show of force and steely determination will definitely have the Taliban shaking in their boots.
He moves in mysterious ways
If Rick Santorum manages to sneak the Republican primary, then we all need to start getting very, very worried.
And the reason?
Well, he is, to use the technical term, a bit of a looper.
Conforming to the European prejudice against right-wing American politicians, he fits every cliché -- insanely religious, completely indifferent to other countries and utterly insular.
And his wife is mental as well.
That can be the only conclusion after an interview she gave last Friday when she claimed that Santorum's surprise rise was a result of divine intervention: "I personally think this is God's will. I think He has us on a path and I do think there's more happening than what we're seeing."
When contacted for a quote, an angry God shouted: "When are these people going to listen? I'm a Newt Gingrich man and, frankly, Santorum scares me. I mean, even I don't believe in Me as much as he does."
What a lovely guy
American rapper Chris Brown may very well be one of the most odious, obnoxious twats working in the industry today -- and that's saying something.
And the man who battered his then girlfriend Rihanna is back in the news after he attacked a fan in Florida the other day.
When a fan approached him for a photo he grabbed her iPhone and snarled: "Bitch, my picture ain't going on no website" before speeding off with his entourage.
Hopefully, one of these days, Brown will try to treat a man the way he treats women.
And then maybe he'll learn a lesson or two.
Irish Independent
