Think of those local hard men, once recipients of frightened glances and scared obsequiousness, having spent the past decade being just ordinary no-marks again. Think of them getting together with the young psycho, who is sitting at their corduroyed knee, learning the intoxicating vocabulary of killing. "Don't you know that Che Guevara thought it was necessary to execute traitors himself? One shot, just here." And you to fire it, Jamie. These men, these hard men, lost in the era of peace. Unattractive men with bald heads and pallid skin and an inability to string five words together without inducing catatonia, can again imagine themselves to be Wolfe Tone or James Connolly reborn. DAVID AARONOVITCHThe Times Here in Northern Ireland we have grabbed at peace like there's no tomorrow, flinging up fancy bars and glossy shopping centres with more haste than taste, so great was our thirst for normality after the dark years of the conflict, writes Fionola Meredith. All the while we've been colluding in the same comforting fiction: that Northern Ireland has undergone a radical and complete transformation, morphing almost instantaneously from shambling, war-torn and intrinsically sectarian pariah state to "world class" destination. In short, we've been behaving like Northern Ireland is a normal place. It isn't. The Antrim shooting has forcibly reminded us of that. There have been warning signs - a rash of failed attacks, the police in flak jackets again, a bomb scare in Belfast's posh new shopping centre, Victoria Square. FIONOLA MEREDITHThe Guardian It was "wrong and counter-productive", declared Gerry Adams when asked to comment on the murders of two soldiers at the Massereene Army base in Antrim, says Tom Sutcliffe. "Counter-productive" is the language of strategy and tactics, of decisions made not on the basis of ethics but of ends. "Wrong" begins to sound as if it means "mistaken" rather than "bad". I didn't much care for Mr Adams's reaction, or for the conspicuously clinical way in which he called on people to assist police, saying: "Sinn Fein has a responsibility to be consistent. The logic of this is that we support the police in the apprehension of those involved in last night's attack." Consistency seems an odd value to appeal to at such a moment, when humanity or outrage might be more effective. TOM SUTCLIFFEThe Independent Is the reputation of politics really enhanced by the revelation that Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, is "snowed under with paperwork" or that Grant Shapps, the Tory housing spokesman, is "contemplating taking my eldest son to play football in the rain" or that Tom Harris, the Labour MP, "can't find the TV remote control"? Twitter is reality TV without the pictures, writes Rachel Sylvester. There is a combination of neurosis and narcissism involved. The psychologist Oliver James has said: "Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It's a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity." At Westminster, it is a symbol of a wider loss of confidence by the political class. RACHEL SYLVESTERThe Times Skunk gets you as high as gin but has psychotropic effects to boot. Cannabis remains in the bloodstream for up to 10 days and, let me tell you, the mood swings continue for every one of those days. And that's not all. In your early 20s, the legacy returns in the form of schizophrenia. Jonathan Myerson The Guardian Yes, the batteries are bulky, and electric cars are still expensive. But the batteries are becoming ever smaller and the price of the cars is coming down; and even in a Tesla, a high-performance sports car, you can drive 200 miles for the price of a cup of coffee, and then just plug it in to recharge. Imagine the lagoon of petrol you buy over the lifetime of the internal combustion engine, and think of the saving you make by going electric. Boris Johnson Daily Telegraph We all know that Peter Mandelson is not a politician who enjoys universal popularity, but still the reaction to Leila Deen's assault has been interesting. Those sections of the media and public life normally against the "yob culture" seem nevertheless to find it a right laugh, simply because they prefer this particular yob to her victim. Surely a yob is a yob, however green its politics, or its custard. Gill Hornby Daily Telegraph Savage sentences have been imposed on Tibetans who have talked of events in Tibet to the outside world: they include a life sentence for a Tibetan NGO worker accused of "espionage," five years for a woman who made an international telephone call and several people arrested in the last few days for having "reactionary music" on their mobile phones.Northern Ireland's troubles
Full article: How they've missed the pleasure of hating 
Police officer killed as violence escalates
Full article: Anarchy lurked just below the surface
Full article: Some carefully chosen words from Adams Westminster's twits
Full article: Politicians twitter while the country burns In Brief
Psychotropic skunk
Full article: This is an emergency
People: Julie Myerson book row escalates Go electric
Full article: How to drive fast, have a good time - and still save the planet
World leaders plan to 'green the recession' A yob is a yob
Full article: When did a yob stop being a yob? Reactionary ringtones
Isabel Hilton The Independent
Full article: The world is no longer looking – but Tibet's plight isn't over
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
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