Missie Rose

I have no idea what that title has to do with what's going on today, but I just thought it was funny. Anyway, if you disagree with that statement (for political reasons or otherwise), just realize that I don't mean anything by it......and that you are probably also an uncharismatic turd. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, we've all got to be something, right?

Our current custodian of the Chair of the NIHCR, Brice Dickson is currently under the spotlight as he is assailed from all sides, primarily for his handly of the infamous Holy Cross dispute. Belfast Gonzo and the ubiquitous Slogger have both recently buzzed on the issue. Indeed yours truly has been involved in the debate, pointing out the arguments that a liberal academic was unsuitable for the role in the first Instance.

As Gonzo notes, with support seeping from the SDLP, and the Irish News apparently gunning for him, it's difficult to envisage how he might survive. If he falls, it will set an extraordinary president for any future quango officeholder of the post-GFA world. Nuala O'Loan has survived so far on a combination of media goodwill, SDLP support and the important winning of a number of battles with PSNI. Will she now be looking over her shoulder? How will the Commissioner for Children survive her inevitable first battle with a Church-run school, especially if the Durkin mafia decide to back the bishops?

Does all this show that the great new vista of rights and ombudsmen is only as strong as their approval rating with various key politicians? The whole area has the air of the vulture about it. Unless you're Jeffrey Donaldson, you seldom get a championship rematch in Northern Ireland. Our battles tend to nasty, brutish and short, the losers vanquished to a world of political 'untermenchen' with all the influence of a greenfly.

We still see our world through our Black and White, 'Zero-sum' glasses, and unfortunately or not, it looks like dickson will not learn from his mistake; he'll be devoured by it.

My Sunday Sabbatical did take place. It was a pleasure to take such a small break from blogging. Now, I'm back. I have loads more to write about and I'm going to go about that later.

One thing though, why do so many bloggers use the word 'hiatus' when they refer to a break from blogging? Is this some sort of blog lingo? When I first came across this word on a blog, it was cool. I found a new word for my vocabulary databank. When I started seeing the same word popping up all over the place, it seems that people are just trying to act cool or be in the 'in' crowd of the information superhighway's D-I-Y publishing (I could have just used the word "blogging") community. Can't people simply use a simple word like 'break'? Maybe our society has ingrained in us that taking a break is a sin and in order to feel less guilty, people use words like 'hiatus' to make a break seem more acceptable.

I shall conclude this entry with this: I had a good Sunday break from blogging and I'm going to take another next week and have a Happy Deepavali.