en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/7757455 Comments by GusMcT http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/god-only-exists-in-ignorant-minds-30236312.html#IDComment825669529 Not accepting Sagan's great quote doesn't make it less true; it is a matter of the purest logic. In addition, Occam's Razor fits perfectly with atheism and a belief in science, the laws of nature and evolution as these are the simplest explanation for who we are and how we came to be. Sat, 3 May 2014 19:43:05 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/god-only-exists-in-ignorant-minds-30236312.html#IDComment825669529 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/too-many-unionists-splitting-the-euro-vote-says-dup-boss-robinson-30216293.html#IDComment821840035 There's a strong element of truth however, to what he's saying; six pro-union candidates versus three nationalist (PSF/SDLP/Alliance). The maths is obvious and will cost unionists dearly, especially when we get to the Westminster elections. Robinson and Nesbitt need to wake up, smell the coffee, put their egos away and establish a policy of agreed candidates. The Conservatives should get the message that outside of a few pseudo-unionists in Holywood and Bangor, nobody on the unionist side will split the vote, especially for a party which states that it has "no strategic interest in NI"! As for the TUV; many of us may well sympathise with the rhetoric, but the split unionist vote is handing seats to republicans. It seems that unionists have learned little from the fleg situation. Fri, 25 Apr 2014 09:12:54 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/too-many-unionists-splitting-the-euro-vote-says-dup-boss-robinson-30216293.html#IDComment821840035 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/article30214815.ece#IDComment821834015 I'd say "yes" to that. In fact there are very few calls for inquiries or human rights investigations into the murders of Soldiers and Police officers. Their grieving relatives bury their dead with dignity and accept that what they were doing carried a large element of risk. I buried three colleagues, whose killers' have been identified to me, several of them being alive and well and now prominent members of PSF. I don't bleat about it and I don't need an inquiry to tell me the facts, that they died whilst doing their duty and accepted the risks. Crossan was a ruthless, bloodthirsty murderer, would have killed me in a heartbeat and you to, if you'd disagreed with him. Fri, 25 Apr 2014 08:54:14 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/article30214815.ece#IDComment821834015 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/article30214815.ece#IDComment821830225 Human being? Fri, 25 Apr 2014 08:41:02 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/article30214815.ece#IDComment821830225 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/adams-and-mcguinness-bombing-claim-30212165.html#IDComment821198157 The words "horses' mouth" seem apt. Wed, 23 Apr 2014 21:57:53 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/adams-and-mcguinness-bombing-claim-30212165.html#IDComment821198157 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment816050428 In reply to your question, I don't nor wouldn't want to represent loyalist paramilitaries of any brand, as I consider them all to be scum in the same manner as PIRA/INLA/New IRA etc. It's disingenuous at best to suggest that I would. Unionists have made many gestures of peace over the intervening years since the GFA. From Paisley displaying a publicly close relationship with the former O/C of PIRA in Londonderry, through Peter Robinson at a GAA match and the DUP agreeing to share in government with PSF, to UFF/UVF decommissioning. Innumerable numbers of loyalists have been involved in cross-community events and forums over this period Thu, 10 Apr 2014 16:45:26 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment816050428 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/article30174018.ece#IDComment816004397 Most (unbiased) biblical scholars now accept that the historicity of this person called "Jesus" is questionable at best. Cameron's claim therefore, is that he is continuing the work of a deluded self-invented, would-be deity called Yeshu Ben Pantera, the illegitimate son of a soldier, who was stoned then hanged under Pontius Pilate for preaching sedition to the Jews. Not a great achievement! Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:00:38 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/article30174018.ece#IDComment816004397 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815904732 Or forty, or fifty,......... Thu, 10 Apr 2014 07:45:53 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815904732 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815904516 I don't get this; I advocate sending our kids to the same schools and removing the barriers between them and you call me "bitter", you label me as "sectarian"! My apologies on the Haass thing and I have a first from Queens in Social Anthropology. Thu, 10 Apr 2014 07:44:59 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815904516 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815903133 My daughter is married to a "fenian", my two best and oldest mates in the world are "fenians" and I regularly accept invitations to attend chapel. I sent my son to a mixed school and my daughter to an integrated school, which is probably more than you did in the name of cultural diversity. My son grew up playing on a catholic football team and none of us are in the orange order or the fleg protest movement. We ARE the moderate members of working class Protestantism, this is a good as it gets and you have completely mistaken Protestantism for patriotism. My track record in "working for peace" is thirty three years long and has run out of patience with nationalists and republicans who acknowledged the state of NI in the GFA, but can't even bring themselves to say the words. This shows the agenda; first try to bomb the bastards into a united Ireland and if that doesn't work, manipulate them into it by clever politics. Unionists like me have given all they intend to give and we do not give our politicians permission to "compromise" any further. Perhaps it was the fleg thing (which never should have flown 365 days a year anyway), but unionists, loyalists and bro-British people in NI have woken up to the fact that their Britishness is under severe threat and about time too. I want a "shared future" with nationalists, but not one in a 32 county socialist republic. You'd better get used to dealing with unionists like me who are not prepared to compromise any further, because I represent the majority in working class unionism/loyalism. Not a bone in my body is Irish and never will be, I even wear a Scotland top on six-nations days and I will never call myself "Irish", no matter what the political circumstances are. Thu, 10 Apr 2014 07:39:38 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815903133 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/exira-leader-mcguinness-toasts-queen-in-her-own-house-at-windsor-30168141.html#IDComment815780989 Oh the irony, you've got to love it. Suck it up Martin! Wed, 9 Apr 2014 23:05:18 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/exira-leader-mcguinness-toasts-queen-in-her-own-house-at-windsor-30168141.html#IDComment815780989 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815779390 Just over half the population of this country are British, we are ruled from London and pay our taxes to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. We were recognised as a state, separate from Ireland, under UK rule, by all the signatory parties to the GFA (including the pan nationalist front of the SDLP, PSF and Alliance). Finally, if you want to fight about it, then let's go; and you know we'll eventually win again. I'll just go and get the Glock from under the floorboards. Wed, 9 Apr 2014 22:59:03 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815779390 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/little-recognition-for-ni-victims-30167097.html#IDComment815557371 Any chance we could actually deal with the cultural warfare in NI and the small matter of a well armed terrorist group trying to kill police officers first, before we move on to reflecting on the troubles? While we continue to separate our kids for the duration of their school lives, we will always have a cultural apartheid. Also, while republicanism is a greedy, grasping movement, determined to get everything it wants and get it yesterday, the two side at the lower working class level, will continue to hate each other more than they ever have. The truth is that while the PIRA/INLA/UFF/UVF/LVF are not out there killing each other and killing us (the ordinary folks of NI) any more, the troubles are far from over. We can't even agree on what to call this country, because despite having accepted the state of NI in the GFA, republicans and nationalist still insist on calling it "the north of Ireland". In addition, the dissident republican movement has enough support within RC communities to allow it to exist, both politically and on the ground. Hence, it's clear that the troubles are not over yet and all this "reflection" and "dealing with the past", suggests that everything is going nicely. Let's deal with the problems of the present, before we dealing with the legacy of the past! Wed, 9 Apr 2014 08:40:35 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/little-recognition-for-ni-victims-30167097.html#IDComment815557371 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815549612 "Tebbit should learn, or be forced, to keep his mouth shut". You sound just like every republican I've ever heard; you may as well say "If you're not for us, you're against us" and send the boys round to blow him up! "Building a shared future" has got to be the most trite and over-used phrase circulating in NI politics, almost as banal as "moving forward" and the reality on the streets is anything but "shared". Until we stop separating our kids at birth and enforcing a cultural apartheid by sending them to different schools, we will never have a shared future. At the lower end of the socio-economic scale, the two communities have never hated each other more than they do now and sectarianism is alive and well. All this feeling of hatred is re-enforced by a greedy, grasping republicanism which wants it all and wants it yesterday. McGuinness's trip to Windsor was stage-managed to allow him to give something meaningless and merely symbolic to unionists, but don't worry, it'll not be long before we hear what substantive gesture he wants in return. My guess is; a return of unionists to the Haas talks which he knows are a win-win situation for republicans on the road to the greening of NI. Robinson/Nesbitt take note, you have my permission to tell them to stuff the Haas talks, as there is nothing here for unionists to gain. Wed, 9 Apr 2014 08:21:28 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/norman-tebbit-i-hope-real-ira-dissidents-shoot-martin-mcguinness-for-bowing-to-queen-at-windsor-castle-30168143.html#IDComment815549612 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/halt-troubles-prosecutions-hain-30162884.html#IDComment815047082 Folks, let's remember that under the licence agreement of the GFA, nobody who committed a murder during the troubles will ever be required to face "justice". If real justice for the victims (of terrorism) was likely or even possible, I'd say it would be worth arguing over; but this early-release/get-out-of-jail-letter nonsense is not worth fighting for. Of course, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so bye bye Finucane, Bloody Sunday, McGurks, Rosemary Nelson and all the alleged SF/loyalist paramilitary collusion enquiries! Mon, 7 Apr 2014 20:59:22 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/halt-troubles-prosecutions-hain-30162884.html#IDComment815047082 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/mcguinness-to-attend-state-banquet-30159281.html#IDComment814646079 Why does he do this? Just when I think I couldn't possibly hate him any more, he does or says something statesmanlike and admirable. Very unfair! Sun, 6 Apr 2014 18:04:34 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/mcguinness-to-attend-state-banquet-30159281.html#IDComment814646079 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/martin-mcguinness-to-attend-state-banquet-hosted-by-queen-30158647.html#IDComment814563019 There's a small matter of this being their country, their land, just as much as yours. We've also got to go through the process of the loyalists returning to violence and extracting the price from the nationalist community, that PIRA did from the unionist community when things weren't going their way. I agree that some time in the next 40/50 years NI will cease to exist, but not before we've paid for it with more pain. Think Johnny Adair X 10 Sun, 6 Apr 2014 12:01:11 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/martin-mcguinness-to-attend-state-banquet-hosted-by-queen-30158647.html#IDComment814563019 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/martin-mcguinness-to-attend-state-banquet-hosted-by-queen-30158647.html#IDComment814561023 She'd kick the shit out of him in a fair fight! Sun, 6 Apr 2014 11:52:30 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/martin-mcguinness-to-attend-state-banquet-hosted-by-queen-30158647.html#IDComment814561023 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/uvf-behind-racist-attacks-in-south-and-east-belfast-loyalist-paramility-group-behind-attacks-says-psni-30153199.html#IDComment814218632 East Belfast UVF motto; "FOR (a pradasint) GOD (so long as we don't actually have to go to church or stop drinking, smoking and fornicating) AND (our kind of) ULSTER (in which we can rob, steal and extort from our own communities and make lots of money controlling the drugs trade)" Sat, 5 Apr 2014 09:44:33 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/uvf-behind-racist-attacks-in-south-and-east-belfast-loyalist-paramility-group-behind-attacks-says-psni-30153199.html#IDComment814218632 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/psni-chief-matt-baggott-challenges-norman-baxter-to-prove-government-meddled-in-otrs-policing-30153914.html#IDComment814216848 I know who I believe. Baxter is plausible, sincere and his body language strongly suggests that he is telling the facts as he knows them. As for Hugh Orde, I wouldn't trust the man as far as I could throw him! Sat, 5 Apr 2014 09:37:09 +0000 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/psni-chief-matt-baggott-challenges-norman-baxter-to-prove-government-meddled-in-otrs-policing-30153914.html#IDComment814216848