Stag hunting, the right to life, consuming stuff

Stag hunting
A group of hunters have decided to protest about the upcoming ban on stag hunting with dogs. People have to eat. Many people eat meat and those that eat factory farmed meat (including me) should question whether or not a stag killed in a few minutes(?) in a field is better off than a factoried animal raised in sterile conditions and slaughtered on a production line.

The right to life or not
A woman was today refused permission from the supreme court to have frozen embryos from her estranged husband implanted in her womb. I am not sure why she would want this to be done anyway, but the pro life lobby are jumping on this as an affront to what they see as the right to life.
In Europe 3 Irish women are taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They argue that their basic human rights were denied when they were not given access to abortion services in Ireland.
One of the women has substance abuse problems and 2 children in care. It seems an odd thing for a woman in her position to have the wherewithal to go to a court of this type to defend what she sees as her rights. Maybe she is just a tough person.

Consuming stuff
Climate talks are ongoing in Copenhagen and fishing quota talks are ongoing in Brussels. Both of these things are related to consumption of the resources on our planet. Why are people so consumption based and why do they seem to get more so? Aspiration to an American (or even European) lifestyle by poor Africans is understandable, but those of us who read books on how to improve the quality of your life, know that stuff rarely does the job. Is there a way that we can get this message across to everyone, not just the rich or the poor? Isn't this a much bigger prize than helping people fix the environment? I often think that the argument that excessive alcohol intake can shorten your life misses the point. Excessive alcohol intake reduces the quality of much of your life, regardless of how long you live. The same type of argument can be used here. Reducing your focus on stuff improves the quality of your life, regardless of how much money you have, or how much debt you can acquire.
This is not supposed to be an argument for convincing the poor to keep their lifestyles as they are and berating the BRIC countries for aspiring to better. It is more about determining what is 'good' stuff rather then putting all consumption into the same basket.
A short video on BBC 4 earlier today was illustrative of this. A woman said she wanted an American lifestyle, but when she elaborated she spoke about clean water and abundant food. What is wrong with that?

Irish Politics

The idea of this blog is just to discuss some of the things that are going on in Ireland at the moment. There is a lot happening, from talks on the environment and ongoing differences between the public and private sector to the treatment of special interest groups like banks. I hope you find it interesting.

Aoife might be looking for more bottle

Mammy says I am turning into a little piglet. 'Born a little person, but turning into a little piglet'. She is as cute as a button and is the boss of us. She met her brother Daniel last night. He was very impressed. She burped.
Eating plenty of grub now and getting plenty of sleep. If she is cranky we just shove a bottle into her mouth and its like the mute button on the telly.