Ireland is no longer Ireland and the Irish have stopped being Irish.

God, I loved that Ireland burnished in my distant memory, eating boiled raw potatoes in the green fields, rustic farms and only barely passable roads...white people refugees from Tryrone in Donnegal huddling in ramshackle houses in the cold and driving dark rains.

A Shock to me...refugees just like Africa or wherever; refugees just like me.

Get out those kneepads, it's time to welcome the newest overlords/part time janitors to their exalted posts. Congratulations to Bernard Guererro, hobbesist and Wagster as the newest moderators. Bitching about how much they suck to commence immediately.

Edit By Bernard: Nothing in particular to add, I just wanted to f* around with some of my new superpowers....

Maybe a whole diary is an overreaction to an offhand piece of humor by PM:

but it seems a bit of an unfair label, considering the long list of real offenses that could cited, and which make George W. Bush a strong candidate for worst president ever. Surrounding himself with an unusual number of WASPs or even Texans is actually not on the list.

The Israeli government has upped the stakes, electing to send troops and tanks into Gaza. I guess 6,500± rocket attacks since Hamas came to power was enough. Ed Morrissey has been updating continuously. The way I see it, if Hamas is not removed from power, then the operation will be deemed a failure.

Reflecting on a comment by MA in another thread

First open thread for the year. For important topics only. Examples:

1. How will the White House be redecorated?

2. How will the GOP exploit the redecoration?

3. Will there be an iPhone nano?

4. Will New York City apartment prices drop enough so I can actually dream of buying one? (so far, no luck)

Discuss amongst yourselves...

I thought I made some predictions last year, but I can't find 'em, so I thought a diary might be a better vehicle for checking how I did. Here are mine for 2009.

1. Iraq will have free and fair elections, the security situation will remain stabilized, refugees will return in greater numbers, several American combat brigades will redeploy home (or to Afghanistan), and the political process will be wonderfully messy.

Chris Dodd received two sweetheart mortgages from Countrywide Financial. The Democratic U.S. Senator from Connecticut is a "friend of Angelo", the CEO of said company. Conveniently, Dodd is chairman of the Senate Committee for Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. You would think, on the surface, the suits at Countrywide were trying to buy a little influence.

...everybody thinks too small, or oddly, seem incapable of thinking at all. There are different roads, there are choices being made, bad ones...Here is a Good Way...

This is the way, this is the light!

...the Citizens of Garza renounce violence; realize that Singapore, Hong Kong and even Manhattan have denser populations on equivalent land areas....and each are doing economically, socially, culturally very well...thank you very much!

It's that time of year again, where we throw the bums out and elect new bums to replace them. Please post your nominations, seconds and recusals in this thread. I plan to open voting on Friday and finalize the election on Sunday night.

Closing with style.

This is looking like a big deal. Israel has launched "waves" of strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza. So what's going on?