Lines, Life, Laura.

@lacdaly Celebrate your own successes. It seems the ABUs are still around

So the Facebook roadshow moved into the city that really matters on Monday. Zuck zipped up his hoodie and headed for NYC. Zuck was of course there to entice and convince Hedge Fund managers and investors that it is worth taking a gamble on him. And that is excatly what they will be doing as Zuckerberg will after IPO still hold 57.3% of Facebook stock. Still be in control. Forget about what Mark Zuckenberg and the rest of the stake holders will earn. To my mind the following are the questions investors will and should be asking if they are going to be sumping up $25 to $30 bucks a share. 

* Will Zuckenberg contuine to act alone and sign cheques for up a billion dollars like he did with Instagram?

* Will Facebook and its board put some corporate governance in place to ensure the above can not be done by Zuck alone . 

* Facebook wants both business and consumers to meet and do business and trust it as the platform to do so. They want us to use Facebook to talk to big business. Facebook is known to has issues around how it treats users information. Do you think big business has enough trust in Facebook to store, handle and protect all parties. Again the question hangs over their corporate governance and compliance.  

* The last question surrounds the big if, which is if Facebook is to deliver for the markets and grow it has to find a way to get is all to buy into their advertising on smart phones. Even they admit as much. To be honest I don’t see it happening. I think you go on Facebook on your phone to quickly update your status and check your friends. I don’t think your going to engage with Coke Cola while you on the Subway and on Facebook. The fact that so much is riding on Facebook, mobile advertising and a complete change of governance and behavior inside the company leads me to think it’s a pipe dream. The Hedge Fund managers and big investors may be able to take a gamble on Facebook but I think the little guys should steer clear next week. We will have fun watching though. 

I have found myself following the story of the death of the British GCHQ code breaker Gareth Williams very closely. I find it all very stranger that it took MI6 his then employers a week to report him missing. My take on this is very simple, I think Mr. Williams was going to do some whistle blowing on the MI6 or its culture. That culture seems to be hard drinking and fast flash cars. And Gareth Williams was quite the opposite of that. I think someone was sent to the flat he was living in to end Gareth Williams life. I think they wiped his computers and his phones before the police got to see them. I think they planted the ladies clothes and shoes around the flat. After all how do we know who actually purchased these items? Gareth Williams it seems was drugged, placed in a holdall, which was locked from the outside and placed in a bath. The placing of a body in a bag and a bath was done by someone else and was all very clean and careful. No mess, no fluids leaking, all very tidy. The fact that there is no CCTV footage of anyone entering or leaving the flat is highly suspicious, but of course a trained undercover agent would be able to arrange it. The fact that they did not report him missing for a week gives them plenty of time to put a clean up and cover up in place. 

Of course this is just my take on things. However there are of course many questions left unanswered, and that is the way MI6 likes it I imagine. If MI6 are behind the death of Gareth Williams they are behind too the taking of his character. Thus they are responsible for his families pain. They are also guilty of snuffing out a most brilliant mind. We may never know how or why Gareth Williams died and that can only lead to more agony for his family. 

The lessons of the past are often very hard to learn. It certainly seems so for the Holy See and The Catholic Church in Ireland. Again Ireland finds itself going through another period where the Church and it’s leaders again fails to see how revolted the Irish people are with the lies, the cover ups and the use of Canon Law to suit their needs. To further infuriate the people and I include in that many practicing Catholics and many priests Rome decides to flex it’s muscle and Censure the likes of Brian D’Arcy. D’Arcy who has given his life to the Church is being treated terribly. I could be wrong on this but I think Brian D’Arcy is held in some respect by the irish people for his stance on the behavior of his bosses in Rome. D’Arcy and other priests have now been told to shut up. While down the road in Armagh the Primate of All Ireland sits in the seat of St. Patrick and tries to hoodwink the Irish people. Cardinal Brady is using Canon Law to try and twist his way out of yet another horrific incident in which the Church put its self Presavartion above the well being, the rights and future life of Children. 

The Catholic Church left a terrible mark on the lives of thousands of Children who as adults faced lives full of Suicide, Mental illness and Alcoholism. Prisons in Ireland, England and America are full of the broken souls who have been used and abused by the Church. They have lived with it and watched as Rome treats it like they had a toothache.  They have also ruined the careers of anyone who stands up to them as they are clearly intent on doing with Brian D’Arcy. They have effectively sidelined the Archbishop of Dublin Dermort Martin as he was verging away from the party line. 

If the Irish Goverment has any guts or any moral courage they would tell them there will be no Eucharistic Congress in Dublin this year. They will back the Taniste in his calls for Cardinal Brady to resign. They will send a very strongly worded statement to the Vatican to say that they need a change of leadership in Ireland. They also need a change in attitude in relation to Canon and Criminal Law. All roads to say lead to Rome. It is time the Irish people and her Government closed those roads until Rome has the moral courrage to do right by a country it has brought so much damage to. 

I should just say that I have nothing but admiration for Brendan Boland. As a fourteen year old boy he faced up to 3 priests alone and did the right thing. He was a man even then. Shame they failed him. 

Lots has and will particularly in this next few weeks be written about  the former Senator from NC… my take on it is simple, John Edwards as they would say in Brooklyn, your a schmuck.

The “Artist” Damien Hirst is having a major Survey (his words not mine) of his work in London’s Tate Modern starting this month through to September. Now in my very humble opinion Hirst is the greatest salesman to ever walk this earth. He also has an uncanny ability to put ordinary items into tanks, onto shelves and then into galleries where they are then called art. It is a remarkable feat and one I refuse to acknowledge as art.

His Mother is reported to have said on hearing of one of his projects “For the Love of God!”, I agree and as you can imagine I won’t be rushing to the Tate to see the tanks filled with liquid the color of cheap shampoo and dead Mammals.  

I have given up listening to Irish Politicians of all colours and creeds defending their decisions. I have stopped watching Current Affairs programs. I have stopped watching The Frontline and Tonight with whoever. Why? Well firstly I am sick and tired of hearing the same old drivel. This particular Government is spineless and is full of spineless backbenchers. Those on it’s front bench are just puppets and mouthpieces for those paying our bills in Europe. Enda Kenny is like a head boy going off to Europe to get a pat on the head from Astrix the Gaul and The Headgirl of the Fatherland. The Minister for Health is virtually a hermit and our so called Taniste is as effective as a Chocolate Teapot full of Earl Grey on a sunny day in Florida. Now they of course are not to blame for what the nation is paying for now. Of Course not. However they put themselves before the Irish people as their saviors. They have managed to fail the Irish people miserably. Ministers Howlin, Burton and Shatter have been miserable failures. Former Minister Penrose said last week on National radio, that he had gone back to work as a Barrister. So in the mist of the State being on her knees Mr. Penrose thinks he can best serve his Constuiency  and the country at the bar. Not enough money in being a humble TD for Mr Penrose then.                                                                                             

                            In the next few weeks we shall have the sight of Government Ministers departing off to all corners of the earth on the pretext of representing the Irish people. You can bet your bottom euro that there will be no new jobs after these junkets just massive bills for the tax payer. We have this debate every year about St. Patrick’s Day the people want to see them stay in Ireland and do they ever do what the people want? So much for a listening Government. The only thing the Government have in common with their people at the moment is the airport departures lounge. If they really want to do something the people may approve of they should forget about a Summer Holiday.