Happy St. Patrick's Day

Don't forget to wear your green, 'cause it's Saint Patrick's Day.

"You're as welcome as the flowers..." even if you're gay.

May the Irish luck be yours today - tomorrow, too.

Wishing you an Irish blessing for the whole year through.

May the winds be at your back and may the sun shine bright;

May you have a sober friend to drive you home tonight.

Whether you're a McNamara, Harrigan, or Corr

Hope the year ahead has naught but happiness in store.

Dr. Seussilitis Does The SCOTUS Blog - Affirmative Action Editon

The Supreme Court of the United States voted to uphold Michigan's ban on Affirmative Action. (Cartoon/Courtesy of instruction.blackhawk.edu)

SCOTUS ruled, at 6 to 2, that voters get to choose

If there's a protection that minorities should lose.

Michigan decided that Admissions at a school

Cannot factor race when they're selecting from their pool.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor strongly disagreed;

Said the program's one that some minorities still need.

On this issue, I am still unsure how I should feel:

Knowing that the evidence for racism is real,

Wanting to be helpful (it's the Irish Catholic guilt)

Being proud of the protections that the 60s built.

Is that condescending to a person 'cause they're black;

Just assuming I've got some advantages they lack?

That's where I'm uncomfortable. I don't know which side's right,

And I'll never, really know the answer, 'cause I'm white.

All I know is most of color think the program works

And, in their experience, the voters can be jerks.

Aren't we all about protecting the minority?

Not as if they're asking for a lot, it seems to me...

Just consideration of a little more than grades

'til the scar our history has inflicted on them fades. 

A Modern Irish Blessing

Clicking on the highlighted links will take you to some great Irish pub music.

May the roads rise up to meet you. May the sun shine bright.

May the good Lord keep you safe and sheltered in His sight.

Hope the pub you're sitting in does not run out of beer.

If you want the happiest St. Patrick's Day this year;

Ask before you kiss the Irish - you'll have better luck,

Pray some older ladies in the bathroom don't get stuck,

May you find a table, though the line is out the door.

Will you see me out there now? No, nay, never...  No more.

I remember many Drunken Nights out on a binge...

On St. Patrick's Day my face displayed a greenish tinge.

Too old for shenanigans; a glass or 2 - no more -

Lest the road that rose to meet me means I'm on the floor.

Tata Madiba's Memorial Service

Mourners at Nelson Mandela's Memorial service. (Photo/Huffington Post)

Probably the strangest funeral I've ever seen.

Mourners' faces painted black, white, yellow, red and green;

Singing in their thousands as the rain poured down in sheets...

Many of them clapping hands and dancing on their seats.

They all booed their President; Obama got a cheer.

Had a fake interpreter for people who can't hear.

I thought Irish wakes were rowdy...  Little did I know.

People of South Africa just put on quite a show.

Israeli Settlements - An Irish-American-Agnostic's View

(Map/Courtesy of BBC News)

I am not Israeli, so I can't know how it feels;

Do not have a history of loss time never heals.

Don't know what it's like to have bombs falling from the sky;

Every day - afraid someone I love is gonna die.

I'm not Palestinian and can't know how I'd feel

Watching as Israelis do their very best to steal

Land that once belonged to me...  And, why? Because God said?

Their belief my neighbors want to see all of them dead?

I was born of Irishmen with Troubles of their own.

Saw the hatreds grown through seeds that history has sown.

Any time you mix God up in boundary disputes

Peace trips on religion and it tumbles down the chutes.

I am an American who doesn't understand

Why is it that settlements are built on Arab land?

Surely, everyone can see that's making matters worse?

Numbers should be falling but they're doing the reverse.

I am an agnostic; I don't follow any church.

Doesn't mean I think that God has left us in the lurch.

I believe that God is there and angry at the mess

We have made out of the gifts which He gave us to bless.