Manhattan Diary
by Cahir O'DohertyRSS 
Recent Posts
- Will New York Senator Chuck Schumer ditch gay couples for an immigration deal?
- If nobody's happy, it's working – the abortion debate and Irish politics of stalemate
- Conservative news entertainment complex claim Barack Obama leader of Al Qaeda
- Why Irish grudges are passed on - a long tradition of never forgetting
- Boston man confronts Infowars conspiracy nuts over 'false flag' claim
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When something is very common, when it's overly familiar, you can can stop seeing it, you can miss it entirely, in fact.
So what are we looking at in this photograph?
Usually you just shrug and you wait. But yesterday was a little different. As we stood in the crowded train I noticed a group of teenagers pointing eagerly at someone on the platform.They couldn't contain their amusement so I looked out to see what was going on.
I saw a mentally ill African American man, about 60, in a cheap blue track suit, who was clearly in distress. He was homeless and although was standing in one place his entire body was convulsing, his arms flailing wildly, as though something was on him that he couldn't throw off.
A group of about 50 LGBT activists led by Chicago's Gay Liberation Network picketed the city's Holy Name Cathedral and Cardinal Francis George yesterday, protesting the Catholic Church's relentless attempts to block marriage equality and civil unions in the state.
Critics contend the Church's speedy attempts to block equality legislation stand in stark contrast to their decades of foot dragging on the international abuse crisis within their own walls.
Do you want to know what America would look like under Tea Party/GOP rule? Look no further than Arizona.
Not content to wage war against health care for all it's citizens, or to menace the undocumented, lawyers for the state are now attempting to eliminate the state's domestic partner benefits.
The news reports lay the facts out for you: how the Irish bankers and property developers lost the run of themselves, how the Irish government looked the other way, and how the Irish taxpayers got stuck with the bill.
Prior to the Superbowl, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly staged an interview with President Obama that is attracting increasing comment for its tone rather than its content.
It wasn't the lively exchange of political views that distinguished the exchange.
The fact is that O'Reilly rudely interrupted the President no less than 48 times (in the process introducing himself into the national conversation) and setting a new benchmark for coarse incivility and disrespect toward the Commander in Chief.
It sounded like a song more than a question.
For the Irish O'Reilly's question recalled indelible lines in Sean O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock: "Th' whole worl's in a terrible state o' chassis - what is the moon, what is the stars?"
