[Re. audio of the President of Ireland arguing with a Tea Partier over health care.]
This drivel coming from an Irish communist doesn’t surprise me. Remember, Europe is full of 1) The people who were too stupid to leave when their country was in famine and in massive decline and 2) Too chickenshit to leave because at least their lord or king gave them a moldy potato every now and then.
They are the ones left behind. It makes sense that their descendants are socialist losers who cling to the gov’t teat.
61 comments
You'll have to explain how it's necessarily foolishness to have a top priority besides self-amplification...
I don't get why private health care is necessarily superior to public health care. Do they really think government archons suddenly withdrawing it over cost concerns is inevitable? Or is this just a matter of "strong" auto-translating to "good" somehow? I wish they'd remember that weakness is not blameworthy...
I don't know what's more idiotic: that he thinks Ireland is a communist monarchy, that as a supporter of an extremely anti-immigration party if mocked those who stayed behind during the famine, (you got to be evil to mock a fucking famine,) or that the bitch went and gave the Irish cause for revenge. In a land that so dearly loves its clichés and stereotypes why would anyone do that?
Some figures from the CIA World Factbook:
Average life expectancy in Ireland 80.19 years.
Average life expectancy in the USA 78.37 years.
Infant mortality rate in Ireland 3.81/1000.
Infant mortality rate in the USA 5.98/1000.
It's not the Irish who are the losers in the health care stakes...
Anyone who thinks the Irish president is a communist is not worth paying attention to, right out of the gate. When the same person then proceeds to make jokes about famine, they should be thrown over a tall cliff.
I thought the Irish president was rather right-wing. Apparently I was wrong; the latest three have all been Labor.
Europe is not a country, stupid, it's a continent. Not all of Europe suffered from famine, not all Europeans had the means to travel to the US, and some people preferred to stand and fight, rather than flee.
You can also view it as we sent away the chicken-shits who was too weak or scared to stay and work together for a better future. Which might be an explanation for the large amount of people who are eager to cooperate on this side of the Atlantic, and the large amount of people who'd rather work alone on the other side. (There are, of course, both kinds of people on both sides of the Atlantic, and most people are somewhere between those two types.)
Reason # 5,864 why the Tea Party should NEVER be allowed control of the US government:
They're absolutely horrid when it comes to knowledge of international relations, and view diplomacy as "socialist".
First off, socialism and communism are different things and Ireland is neither.
Secondly, Ireland is far from alone in having a universal healthcare system. But the USA is alone among developed nations in not having one.
Hey, don't knock it till ya try it! (Public Health might be pretty crappy, but I'd much rather spend my money on my mortgage and not my medical bills, thank you.)
He's not really a communist, Michael Higgins. More of a social democrat, centre-left. Note the distinction please.
Nice take on European history, though. Nice way to simplify some extremely complex historical phenomena, and to dismiss hundreds of millions of people with diverse cultures and languages.
And what about immigration *within* Europe?
"The gov't teat". The money doesn't come from "the government" really, but from the taxpayer, which is us. It's a recognition that we live in a society with other people, and that no-one gets rich all on their own, but has to use common infrastructure and utilities built with other's work. Everybody in theory has an input, and everybody can in theory take from the system he has paid into in times of need. You can call it socialism, I call it a basic element of civilization, a recognition that we are humans and live in societies with reciprocal relationships and needs.
This applies to all industrial societies and America is not somehow an exception. If you want a harsh social darwinist society where the law of the jungle prevails, and there's a constant fight to get to the top and exploit the largest number of people the most efficiently, then you can have it. But count me out.
The drive that comes from Elizabeth.
Michael D. Higgins is certainly a socialist - but so is most of Europe. That means that Europeans have a higher standard of living than many in America. You, want to deny proper social benefits because you have been brainwashed into thinking they are 'communist'. Our old folks and sick don't get dumped by their insurance companies, so we live longer and have better quality of old age.
As to leaving Ireland, where do you think all those millions of Irish Americans came from? It was desperation and bad government from London that fed the survivors of the Great Famine to the US.
From here it looks like the brainwashing of Americans against being better looked after socially has worked all too well. Every time you say no socialised medicine, you are shooting yourself, and your families in the foot. Talk about short-sightedness! And in Elizabeth's case, ignorance. Get to know your world history better before you start spouting such nonsense.
President Higgins cares passionately about the Irish people. Teabaggers are about as caring as wolves.
@ Captainsweatervest
Not bad Irish at all; but if you'll allow a correction: Póg tón na hÉireann!
@ Leighton Buzzard
Shhh! Don't draw attention to Ireland being somewhat socialist. We don't like to frighten American right wingnuts. :-)
...or it could be that they stayed because they love their country and wanted to try to make their own way, rather than flee when things got tough.
They are the ones left behind. It makes sense that their descendants are socialist losers who cling to the gov’t teat.
As opposed to teabaggers, who continually seek to manipulate the laws of the US to reflect their own rigid and cruel religious philosophy.
Also, look up communism. It doesn't mean what you think it does. Must you make the rest of us look bad every time you speak or bang away at your keyboard like an inebriated monkey?
go eagleland! fuck yeah 'muricah!
ah, tis a silly place. oh, and no, the usa is not the pinnacle of human development. that would be human civilization.
also, ireland: booze, lots of it. usa: bourbon, sour mash, and a few other styles imported and modded after a few hundred years. without europe's influence, the usa wouldn't exist
Oh, and a couple more things:
a) The President of Ireland is a ceremonial role, like the Queen of England. He or she does not have any role in policy.
b) When Higgins made those remarks 2 years ago, he wasn't President yet. He was still a TD, which is like a MP in the UK or a Congessman in the USA.
You are one wretched bitch, ya know that?
Kiss my 1/3 Irish ass & then go kill yourself.
And how dare you tarnish my middle name! Miserable ignorant twat.
1) The people who were too stupid to leave when their country was in famine and in massive decline It's patriotism.
2) Too chickenshit to leave because at least their lord or king gave them a moldy potato every now and then. Meanwhile, while we worked our fields (without slaves!) you got help because you didn't know shit got some help from pagans and decades later thanked them with genocide. I'd rather begg than build a country on the explotation of two races.
And yet, there are places in Europe that have a better standard of living that here in the U.S. At the very least, in quite a few countries you don't have to worry about not going to the doctor when you're sick because you can't afford it.
OK for real and at the risk of getting Godwined:
We lost two thirds of our population in the Famine, I don't think it's a suitable subject for sneering at.
First off, following a King makes you Communist? In what universe?
Second, Michael Higgins is a far more intelligent person than you, he's one of my personal heroes, I would vote for him and I don't even live in Ireland. You're just mad that he's proven exactly what you little bastards are.
"The people who were too stupid to leave when their country was in famine and in massive decline"
Cause, ya know, why stick around and help fix the problems.
Apparently, in Elizabeth's tiny mind, being so poor that they were nearly dead from hunger, and thus totally incapable of coming up with the funds required to leave Ireland during the famine = "too stupid to leave".
Fucking idiot.
This drivel coming from an American Nazi doesn't surprise me. Remember:
1- USA is full of right-wing fundie Nazis
2- Too chickenshit to leave to help aid their Republican comrades in Northern Ireland, but funded the IRA for 30 years.
They are the ones left behind. It makes sense that their descendants are terrorist losers who cling to the bank of that river in Egypt. As the sand gives way as they drown in the reality that they're no longer having their own way in the playground.
I think Ken Macleod said it best.
"Hey, this is Europe. We took it from nobody; we won it from the bare soil that the ice left. The bones of our ancestors, and the stones of their works, are everywhere. Our liberties were won in wars and revolutions so terrible that we do not fear our governors: they fear us. Our children giggle and eat ice-cream in the palaces of past rulers. We snap our fingers at kings. We laugh at popes. When we have built up tyrants, we have brought them down. And we have nuclear *fucking* weapons."
Actually, America was moslty used to dump the unwanted elements from our civilisation on. You often had a choice: life in prison, or go on a one-way trip to the new world.
Subsequently, America has lagged to us in every major social advance ever since. Then, slavery: abolished in europe while the USA still let it happen.
Now, gay mariage: legal in most of europe, and the USA still being a homophobic little bitch about it.
"This drivel coming from an Irish communist doesn’t surprise me. Remember, Europe is full of 1) The people who were too stupid to leave when their country was in famine and in massive decline and 2) Too chickenshit to leave because at least their lord or king gave them a moldy potato every now and then.
They are the ones left behind. It makes sense that their descendants are socialist losers who cling to the gov’t teat."
A certain Michael McKillop would like a word with you.
He has Cerebral Palsy. If not for Ireland's Healthcare system, he wouldn't have been able to win the Men's 800 & 1500 Metres T37 in the 2012 London Paralympics.
Now where were your Parathletes - who of course don't 'cling to the gov’t teat', and instead use your country's far 'superior ' private health system - in those particular races, winning Golds? Oh yes, that's right: they didn't .
Remember where a lot of your country's present citizens came from. And who helped to build, nay, defend your nation in the past.
so i suppose that means you will be leaving america any day now, wont you, hypocrite? which country is having a horrible harvest and has been in decline since GWB took office around 12 years ago? oh thats right. america. thats the one.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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