Irish Times

[anton pulisov]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

loose cannon wrote: Hmm
I guess I tick box (2) section (b) - but for instance the idea of two women bringing up baby wouldn't particularly bother me. But two lads - that's a bit "hold on there now Ted".

What about a widowed father and his brother?

[Toby Gymshorts]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

That's OK as long as they don't touch each other's winkies.

[Borracho]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

the idea of two women bringing up baby wouldn't particularly bother me. But two lads - that's a bit "hold on there now Ted".

There are untold millions of shit mothers in the world, just as there are millions of shit fathers.

[DCI Harry Batt]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

loose cannon wrote: 2)
I guess I tick box (2) section (b) - but for instance the idea of two women bringing up baby wouldn't particularly bother me. But two lads - that's a bit "hold on there now Ted

I'm just curious - on what grounds are you objecting to the label of "homophobe"?

[anton pulisov]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

It could be interpreted as homophobic, but calling it that isn't going to bring home the Yes vote.

[DCI Harry Batt]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

I'm not campaigning in the Irish referendum.

[loose cannon]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

It's not often you get out of bed to find that everyone has moved so far to the left that you've become a nazi.

[DCI Harry Batt]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

loose cannon wrote: It's not often you get out of bed to find that everyone has moved so far to the left that you've become a nazi.

I hate it when that happens.

[Toro Toro]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Antonio Pulisao wrote:

The second paragraph is adaptationism of an unsustainable strength (and belied by everything that's been said about social circumstances changing quicker than gene ratios in stable populations). But also, citeógs are a fucking abomination in the eyes of God.

But I'm not talking about stable populations. Stable populations are not interesting from an evolutionary point of view. I'm talking about small human populations living in harsh environments during the early establishment of the species. That's when natural selection is at its most brutal.

The human evolutionary advantage is based on brain size, and human offspring require a longer nurturing period than any other organism. This requires loads of time and effort on the part of the parents. The higher you go up the evolutionary tree, the smaller family sizes become.

Now, imagine there's one human population (say 100 hunter gatherers) with an adult to child ratio of 1:3. A second human population (also 100 hunter gatherers) has an adult to child ratio of 1:2.8, due to having some gay adults who don't have kids. The adults in the second population are going to have more time per capita to teach all the kids in their community how to hunt properly, how to make fire, etc. It's a huge evolutionary advantage; their kids will be smarter.

*small edit, I changed to ratio of kids to adults a bit... otherwise both populations would have died out.

You can certainly construct models under which the evolutionary advantage is plausible; there's just little or no evidence that they do reflect the circumstances under which human ancestors evolved.

loose cannon wrote:

Hmm
I guess I tick box (2) section (b) - but for instance the idea of two women bringing up baby wouldn't particularly bother me. But two lads - that's a bit "hold on there now Ted".

Jesus Christ.

Does this only go for the hot lesbians in cheerleader costumes, or would you allow ugly ones to raise a child too?

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

loose cannon wrote: It's not often you get out of bed to find that everyone has moved so far to the left that you've become a nazi.

Certainly not a charge that could be directed against Kenny or Martin, and I'm just your standard floating voter.

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

The Minister for Public Enterprise, Richard Bruton, last night embarrassingly failed to be selected by his local constituency branch - he was added later, but hardly a ringing endorsement !

[anton pulisov]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Renua Creighton are being very quiet on the whole marriage referendum.

Not wanting to lose votes huh...

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

In a surprise move, the Gaelic Players Association is to campaign for a Yes vote, an internal poll revealing a 6:1 favourable margin. Personally, I'm always wary of politics in sport, but this could well swing some of the marginal rural constituencies.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

That ratio isn't surprising at all. Though it would be Interesting to see what proportion of Those who were against were loyal subjects of the Crown.

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Obviously not the ratio, TAB - more the fact that they felt the urge to enter the fray at all, referee Gough's recent wristband notwithstanding.

[Borracho]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Donal Og Cusack is the chairman of the GPA, so that will have been one of the reasons for it.

[anton pulisov]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

The Irish Times has become a mouthpiece for the Iona Institute. How much are they paying Breda O'Brien to spout shite?

I love this letter:

Sir, – I will be voting Yes in the same-sex marriage referendum. Not because of inclusiveness. Not even because of equality. I will be voting Yes to save the Irish red herring from impending extinction.

The profusion of red herrings served up by the No side to date has been such that one worries that the national quota has been breached, and this so early in the year. In fact, such reckless overfishing makes one fear for the very survival of the species and the availability of stocks for future referendums.

The Irish red herring has been a staple of referendum campaigns in this country for as long as I can remember and has become part of the very fabric of the national discourse. I call on the Government to have the Irish red herring listed as a protected species under European law with immediate effect. It has been estimated that thousands of jobs will be lost if the Irish red herring is fished to extinction, resulting in emigration, divorce and societal breakdown.

If we do not halt our path down the slippery slope of red herring overfishing, we will be left with no option but to engage in a policy of forced adoption of red herring, assisted red herring reproduction and even red herring surrogacy.

For the good of the Irish red herring and the Irish red herring community, I urge my fellow voters to vote Yes on May 22nd. – Yours, etc,

ROB SADLIER,

Dublin 16.

And this one:

Sir, – Bye-bye wife, hello spouse. – Yours, etc,

SEAMUS O’CALLAGHAN,

Carlow.

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Seems 120,000 18-25s are unregistered as tomorrow's cut-off approaches, will the Twibbon wearers actually get as far as the polling booth?

[anton pulisov]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Diable Rouge
Posts: 6666

Hmmm

[Tubby Isaacs]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Diable Rouge wrote: Seems 120,000 18-25s are unregistered as tomorrow's cut-off approaches, will the Twibbon wearers actually get as far as the polling booth?

Jesus. That's getting on for 2m if you gross up your population to ours.

Cutbacks on "bureaucracy" responsible? We've been fortunate to have Nick Clegg overseeing constitutional matters here.

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

No, just pure party apathy, no Indyref-style event to spark the voters of the Republic.

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

It must also be admitted, that unlike the UK, postal voting is virtually impossible, as only voters who will physically absent from a constituency, like ambassadors, are granted one, and paperwork for registration must be submitted to the local council office, rather than completed online.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Diable Rouge wrote: No, just pure party apathy, no Indyref-style event to spark the voters of the Republic.

We've not had an indyref in England, but I don't think even we've done as spectacularly badly as you on this.

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Meanwhile, the "forgotten" referendum on reducing the age requirement for presidential candidates looks set to be defeated overwhelmingly - after all, a twenty-one year old is highly unlikely to have the life experience to become head of state.

[Diable Rouge]

The 2016 Irish election is over!

Green Caix's cup overfloweth with the news that Sindo journalist John Drennan is standing for Renua.