Raiméis

Been following the news of the money laundering raids in Dublin & Cork? I decided to let the dust settle before posting on it and have been spending most of my time over on Slugger who have been posting updates on the subject as the story develops. Anyway, with seven arrested, two ‘with republican connections’ released without charge, one charged with Real IRA membership, a Sinn Féin member, a businessman who had €3.3m in his back garden, as one does, a trusted associate of Bertie under investigation, €253,000 handed in to a Garda station in Cork, a man with money to burn and a Gerry Adams in denial, it should make a feckin great movie … Oceans 13 maybe?

Update: Eight person arrested [registration cheat].

Lots of talk recently about nuclear weapons especially wrt Iran who are suspected of running a nuclear arms program. Here the BBC takes a quick look at who has what when it comes to nuclear weapons. The US, with all their talk of stopping Iran from developing weapons, is said to have about 6000 strategic warheads with some some 3,000 warheads in reserve, according to the Arms Control Association.

Since the days when The Clones Cyclone had the country glued to the tv i’ve been keeping an eye on Irelands best fighters. One of our best in recent years has been Ulsterman Wayne McCullough who, at 34 and with only 2 competitive rounds fought within the last two years, was taking on champion Oscar Larios in his bid to land the WBC super-bantamweight title this morning in California. Sadly, despite a brilliant effort over 12 rounds, McCullough lost on points to the champ. All credit though to McCullough for coming back and giving it another go after his beating at the hands of WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison two years ago. I hope this is not his last attempt but at 34 this may just be the end for Wayne.
Update: McCullough to fight on.

The state of Virginia has proposed a bill which means people showing too much of their underwear could be fined as much as $50! The bill is designed to stamp out the problem of people wearing their trousers so low that their boxers or g-strings are showing ala rapper-style. I think these old fogies in the state house need a reality check!

Cuba? I mean CUBA?? How can Cuba have a smoking ban? I saw a documentary not so long ago on Cuba and everyone was smoking. It’s like a national pastime!!
Ok, a tad unfair, only about 2,047,714 [32% 2001, 37% - 1995] adults smoke. But with about 25,000 new cases of lung cancer every month you can certainly understand why they would bring in a ban.

Jaypers. I now have 50 Gmail invites to give away. Anyone interested just mail me!

Been slow blogging recently, apologies, lack of time is my excuse.

Tensions are building up between the US and Iran, it’s beginning to look likely that there will be some sort of strike against Iran in the not too distant future. The US may not have the balls to do it but might persuade Israel to have a go. If they had brains they’d back off. Iran is not a country to be fucked with and they have already stated that they “will retaliate and accelerate its efforts to develop nuclear technology if attacked by the US or Israel”. Out of curiousity I did a search for Iran defence information and found a site with a number of links, very interesting is this report from the 8th December 2004, Iran’s Military Power – CSIS [pdf format], worth reading.

It’s amazing just how crazy some people are. A guy was jailed in Holland today for 15 years after shooting dead a teenage boy who threw a snowball at his car! “The victim, 13-year-old Sedar Soares, was in a group of children throwing snowballs at passers-by in a Rotterdam car park. When they hit a car, its driver stepped out and opened fire at them”. It’s a crazy world.

The government has appointed a team to access the risks [registration cheat] of a tsunami hitting Ireland. They are even looking into the feasibility of setting up an early warning system. The move seems to have been prompted by a British Minister telling Gay Mitchell that Ireland and GB had been hit by a tsunami in the early 18th century following the Lisbon earthquake.

It’s been a very good day for the people of Iraq who have voted in their first multi-party election for 50 odd years. As opposed as I am to the war I have to admit that perhaps something good has come from it. The Iraqi people themselves relished the chance to vote and despite attacks which calimed the lives of 36 people (which could have been a lot worse) over 60% of those eligible to vote turned out today. Maybe i’m asking for too much but I hope today was a first step to creating a stable and peaceful Iraq.