Author Archive: Bill Black
I'm a baby boomer, lefty Democrat, Boston Irish Catholic, born in 1953. I work as a public affairs consultant in Washington.
John Templeton
“I grew up as a Presbyterian,” he told Business Week in 2005. “Presbyterians thought the Methodists were wrong. Catholics thought all Protestants were wrong. The Jews thought the Christians were wrong. So what I am financing is humility. I want people to realize you shouldn’t think you know it all.
I wonder where he is right now?
McCain’s Economic Team
So the joke runs deeper than McCain claiming that a man who literally speaks for him doesn’t speak for him. It shows there’s policy chaos in McCainland. After all, here’s a campaign–led by a candidate who once said he didn’t know much about the economy–that has one top economic adviser essentially blaming another top economic adviser for economic woes that the second top economic adviser won’t acknowledge. Really makes one yearn for a McCain administration, doesn’t it?
McCain’s Management Style
As the former McCain advisor puts it, ‘McCain’s style is, call everyone into a room, say you guys work it out, and then turn off the lights. And then throw in a knife.’ The question going forward for Murphy — or anyone, for that matter, who wants to run the McCain campaign — seems to be whether he can grab that knife before somebody else does.
Scalia’s Hypocrisy
But I also hope this decision opens people’s eyes to the fact that judicial activism is now a habit of the right, not the left, and that “originalism” is too often a sophisticated cover for ideological decision-making by conservative judges.
Riverdance
As often happens when I blog while traveling, the trip ended before my blogging ended. So, I’ll try to catch up quickly.
After traveling back from Galway, we re-entered the warm bosom of the Saunders household in Dublin on Saturday. John had arranged for us to see Riverdance that evening. He warned us that the best he could get were some “obstructed view” seats. Right. Turns out we were in the Presidential Box, right next to the stage. There was about 15% of the stage that we couldn’t see, but the proximity was extraordinary, as you’ll see from the following clip. It’s a bit long and I had some “buffering issues” when I played it. But gives a good sense of the show.
As it happens, John and Jean Saunders are very close friends with the creators of Riverdance. The producer, Moya Doherty, worked with Jean many years ago and they’ve remained close. John’s contribution to Riverdance was apparently his comment when the idea was presented to him, “Nobody’s going to want to set for two hours watching Irish dancing.” The rest, as they say, is history.
Here’s the clip. The occasion clapping shadows are my wife, Rita, and daughter, Bridget.
Galway
This was our destination after crossing the Shannon, the home of Declan Ganley. I didn’t mention his name in a previous post out of concerns for his privacy and security. Then Danny got into a discussion with a local florist in which he mentioned that he was staying with the Ganleys and the florist said, “Oh, they have a marvelous home.” So, clearly, where they live is no big secret.
Declan made his fortune in the telecommunications business. He bought this home when he was 26 years old. As mentioned below, it was once owned by the singer, Donovan. Declan has gained recent fame through his leadership of the campaign in Ireland that succeeded in persuading the Irish voters to vote no in the recent referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
He’s a tremendous host, a brilliant reconteur and an all around great guy. The video below shows the house from the front and back. It also shows our bedroom (which also had Al Gore as a guest), as well as the “snooker room,” where the men retired after dinner to discuss politics. Also shown is the indoor pool and both families (except for me) sitting at brunch.
It was a delightful and memorable visit.
Rita’s Relations
Rita’s father’s people are from County Kerry. We were told that she had relatives in a place called Kilgobnet. No one we spoke to had ever heard of the place. Fortunately, Google had, so we were able to place it generally, near Killorglan, the place where Puck Fair takes place. Rita’s father’s boat was named Puck Fair in honor of his ancestors.
Unfortunately, most of the people in Killorglin had never heard of Kilgobnet either. We ended up stopping at a private home and got directions that brought us close. We asked about three more people before we found the Kilgobnet Post Office. Here’s Rita with the pictures that she’d been sharing with postal employees. They got us close. The last person we talked to turned out to be the next door neighbor of our target. The place she sent us to was a working dairy farm.
We went to the designated house and Rita knocked on the door. The woman who answered was Nora O’Shea and, after a moment of hesitation, greeted us warmly and invited us in.
It was a delightful visit. We had tea and, just as we were about to leave, her son, Cormac, showed up. He runs the farm and was equally gracious.
Here’s a video of the great meeting.
In the Rain
In a previous, out of sequence post, I showed our visit to Torc Falls. Here’s a bit of an “out-take” that really gives a sense of the rain as Danny and Bridget exit the frame dejectedly to get under an umbrella.
