Balrog doesn't get any better
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Celtic fans are not, never were and never will be sectarian.

Really?

Nuff said really.

This video was posted by fascist socialist republican serial-splitters eirigi under the title "RUC-PSNI Brutality". To be fair to eirigi, they've a difficult job: it must be tough trying to act all oppressed when this qualifies as "brutality".

What can you say to that (besides give that scrawny wee scrote a pencil and challenge him to spell "Tiocfaidh ár lá")?

What this demonstrates is not brutality but flawed planning. Firstly, it took them far too long to get access to the property - where was the battering ram? Secondly, they could easily have got in without being harassed by the resident hallian batallion simply by ensuring the raid took place on giro day.

Wasting taxes with a smile.

Seems harassment actions taken by English folk claiming victimisation is on the up. Following the successful case brought by a pipe-fitter in Dublin, Irish FA Chief Executive Howard Wells has filed a grievance concerning his treatment by two colleagues, including IFA president Raymond Kennedy. The news comes a day before 5,000 Green And White soldiers are due to descend on Hampden Park for Northern Ireland's friendly with Scotland.

There don't seem to be any serious details about the grievance at this stage, but given that the fans want Wells out (I don't think he can put that one down to being English) this will be one to watch.

Balrog is critical of those who praise Sergeant Lee Clegg for his role in Afghanistan.

I was disgusted to learn that the British military establishment are now exalting murdering bastard Para Lee Clegg in Afghanistan, as some type of noble war hero. Portraying a child killer as a hero is despicable, even by Brit military standards!

This is in sharp contrast to Balrog's feelings about child killer Sean Kelly. In October 2005 Balrog was critical of Peter Hain for "locking up Sean Kelly for no reason". Earlier the same month a different contributor felt that Kelly, convicted of nine murders committed in October 1993, should not be in prison. On Kelly's release it was commented that the suspension of his Belfast Agreement licence was wrong and done to "appease rejectionist Unionism"

Maybe the two child victims of Kelly's bomb in 1993 were the wrong sort of children for Balrog.

Was anyone else sickened to see Caitriona Ruane smiling like a Cheshire cat when the exam results were released yesterday, revealing that Northern Irish pupils were once again top of the class when it comes to getting A grades at A-level? (I'm not sure if she was congratulating the students or herself!) This is only the woman is doing her damnedest to single-handedly end that trend after all!

35.4% of grades awarded to Ulster's students were As, compared to the UK-wide figure of 25.9%. In terms of A-E passes, Northern Ireland's figure was 98.2% compared to the national rate of 97.2%.

Read more »

Reacting to stories that David Beckham will be the star of London 2012's part of the Beijing Olympics' closing ceremony on 24th August, where the hosts of the next games get the opportunity to offer a preview of coming attractions.

After China's amazing display that took us back through thousands of years of their history, the best we can come up with to represent British culture is a dried-up football star?
shanghaiexpat

Sorry if you already heard this old piece of news but I just spotted it today at the bottom (of page 2) of a NewsLetter article about the Jeffrey Peel's now infamous (and disappeared) entry on the Northern Ireland Conservatives blog where he lambasted the Orange Order.

Its a little snippet about the vote on 42-day detention which the DUP helped the government to push through. To be fair we did already know Iris Robinson just doesn't know when to keep her thoughts to herself.

In the uproar in the chamber after that vote Iris Robinson incensed Conservatives by goading them with a nine-finger salute, inferring that the nine DUP MPs held sway in the House.

Grow up woman!

When I saw this poll on the NewsLetter web site I thought for a second that maybe the results could provide solid figures to dispel the myth that Unionists/Prods are all bible-thumping flat young-earther types.

Now obviously the results would be skewed by the fact that fundamentalist christians don't use the internet because it's an unholy work of satan produced from so-called "science" to corrupt children with fairy-tales about evolution... or something.

Should creationism be taught in science classes?
33% No
67% Yes

Jesus wept!

The last time I wrote about xenophobic attitudes in Dublin I was assured it was the exception rather than the rule. I'm sure that was true then and is now. Nevertheless it's disappointing that such attitudes are one again evidenced by today's news that an English pipe-fitter received regular "racist" abuse from his Irish colleagues who deliberately sang "Irish songs of a political nature" to/around him.

The equality tribunal hearing the case found he was "racially" harassed but rejected the claim that his dismissal (after only 2 months) was based on his nationality.