The Joyce industry is very much an institution over here as you might expect; Portrait of the Artist is a regular feature on the Leaving Cert curriculum but Ulysses is probably the most widely unread national epic in history which is such a shame because despite its difficulty it contains the most authentic rendering of the Dublin brogue ever put into print. Its gratifying to learn that much of the slang and street expressions in circulation today; "crawthumper" "spondoolicks"...

Within Marx’s historical dialectic there is a predicted process of 'homogenization' driven by a bourgeoise revolutionary force whose deployment of capital in its internationalist aspect erases archaic barriers predicated on class, religion, tribal affinities and so forth. This movement of capital is conceived and best facilitated through a free trade environment; one that naturally eschews the various forms of protectionism which only, in the end, forestall the emergence of 'the necessary conditions'...

A friend of mine was recently assaulted by “the PC brigade” for disciplining his child in a parking lot. His four year old boy had been acting up all day and on the back of several warnings he decided to pick him up and deposit him unceremoniously in the front seat. Apart from eliciting several glares a woman approached him to tell him he was being “too aggressive” He later protested, quite reasonably, that as the child’s father he was entitled to raise him in the way that he believed was right...

Abortion is a horrible business whatever way you look at it and most women who decide to have one rarely take the decision lightly. There is nothing terribly ennobling about terminating the life of a prospective human being at any stage, let alone as late as four or five months which unfortunately is the case in many instances.

I think the fetus is sensate and can experience pain at a much earlier stage; perhaps as early as 6-8 weeks and this should weigh in people's considerations....