Notes

( I am NOT Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey NOR am I connected to her in any way. I discuss naming it after her in the "notes" post)

(I just started the flag counter 7/5/09, so that's why the numbers are so low)

Some notes for people

1. Why I offer estimates for this or that group of people on this or that question.
2. Star Trek is added as a new theme.
3. How much I follow current events and my use of Wikipedia.
4. Why do I do some of the weirder posts (i.e. Guilty of Being White, or Slaytanic Wehrmacht)
5. Is the name of the blog appropriate?
6. People I used to know that I want to say Hi to, and hoping they might respond.
7. Blogroll and links.
8. Where do I get this stuff I post? (Sources)
9. Why do I bother responding to everything idiots on the right say?
10. Labels/tags.
11. A note about the figures I have offered for IRA operations and civilian death.
12. A description of the posts on this blog

(This note was re-written sometime in early 2011) 1. For about 2 years until several months ago, I frequently offered estimates for this or that group of people on this or that issue- I think 100% of that was about Irish politics, I more or less didn’t do that for American politics. The last 14 years (1997-2011) I have read an average of about 75 articles a week on average about Irish current events and politics in Irish news-sources and also the BBC. So they aren’t wild guesses. At this point I’m pretty sure there’s only 3-4 questions about Sinn Fein’s membership where I make such estimates, and I really didn’t have any choice with those. (for exanple, on the issue of anti-semitism, I could identify three, sometimes overlapping, groups, so i couldn't simply say that SF is very consistent in opposing anti-semitism, because it's more complicated than that)

2. I have now added Star Trek as a fourth main theme of the blog. For more on why it's actually very tied in with the original three themes of socialism, opposition to bigotry, and Northern Ireland, see the first ST post I did, here.

3a. For some reason, after following the 2008 election like crazy, since then I have had trouble motivating myself to follow current events, but I follow them a little and do a lot of last minute research before I post stuff, and my posts are unlikely to be more than slightly affected by current events (and a lot of the last minute research I've done has shed further light on current events, so when you consider that, I'm about 60% as familiar with events as I should be) (as far as Irish events, at my peak from late 2001 till about 4 years later, I was reading an average of about 150 articles a week, plus some miscellaneous stuff; the last 4 years it's been about 50 articles a week, the last year about 55 articles a week not counting the tons of research for the blog posts, so with research, which often does shed light on the current situation, I'm probably about 60% where I was at my peak) (the point of this is that, to a very small degree with Irish stuff and a moderate degree with everything else, I might not have an answer to questions about current events, but with irish stuff it'll probably have zero-almost zero effect on what I post, and the non-Irish stuff, I could say something similar)


3b. (re-typed 4/11/11) When I first started doing this blog I used Wikipedia for a tiny fraction of my last-minute research before publishing a post (I say last-minute because most of what I posted was already in my head from earlier research). I have good reason to believe that probably the vast majority of what’s on Wikipedia is accurate, but in the spring of 2009 I decided I needed to use a more solid source of information.

About a year and a half ago I finished cleaning this up: I confirmed info from Wikipedia with a better source; or deleted the Wikipedia info; or flagged the Wikipedia info. The only post I have yet to work on is the Slayer post, which is dripping with wikipedia.

Also as far as the reliability of my blog as a source, it came out about 2 years ago that journalists at very well respected news-sources were also using wikipedia, see this.

4. In general, I've decided to kind of nibble at the edges of the issues I address, taking on aspects that I don't think hardly anyone is addressing, or at least not addressing the way I am. I mean, how helpful will it be if I do posts that say "Diversity is good" "Anti-Semitism is bad?"

5. Crucially the NAME of this blog. Although it might have been a better idea if I had gone with simply my name, or, as I just thought right now "The Red and The Green," red referring to socialism, green referring to Irish republicanism, I wanted something which could at least sort of, kind of be considered creative and would capture the spirit of my blog, especially the emphasis on opposing bigotry. In hindsight, The Red And The Green would have been pretty good, although it wouldn't capture the opposition to bigotry as well as the current name. I just looked into this a tiny bit and it seems relatively easy to change the name, although I can imagine a small downside where the (probably very) small number of my fans will be going to the old URL (also at this point there are a lot links to pages on my blog from other blogs and web-sites). On the other hand, I feel better now than I did when I started typing this up. The thing is, I might need to change the name of the blog. Although I'm sure she's ridicuously cool, the woman my blog is named after (Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey) could be ridicuously cool and still have a problem with my blog being named after her- I mean, I ALTER RACIST LYRICS!! WHAT KIND OF PERSON DOES THAT!?!?! : ) Seriously, there are some political differences between us, and in general, the more I think about it, it's very possible she'd be unhappy. I actually might try, via people I sort of know, contacting her.

UPDATE 3/11/09 I have tried through one source to contact her and basically have not gotten more than a tiny response from that source, not sure why, don't know if they passed it on to her or what. I might contact that source and ask what's up, or try a different source.

UPDATE 8/29/09 I have had a friend try to help me get in touch with her the last few months.

I would also like to appologize to her, as she probably is very unhappy about this. On the other hand, she does represent the intersection of opposing bigotry and Irish republicanism better than anyone else. I sort of alternate between feeling bad about naming it after her, and on the other hand, feeling like her name captured what the blog was about better than anything else. Although at this point (10/2010) I'm hoping she's okay with what I've done (because of all the links I've done from other sites), I have a pretty good idea of how to transfer the material to another blog with a different name, if necessary.

For some reason I kind of missed this earlier, and it's probably just as potentially innapropriate, perhaps even more, but i realized that I did something similar with Liam Quinn. The thing is, he is 1/2 Mexican-American (I'm assuming that his mom is significantly less than 100% descended from Spain). The two times I've used his name, it was very appropriate, in the sense that he represents an intersection of Irish Republicanism (specifically the Provisionals) and anti-racism. On the other hand, if he hears about this and is offended, I will change things. UPDATE 3/12/10 I haven't heard from him or anyone about this, but I renamed that post "Anti-Racism and Republicanism;" the URL remains the same as before.

UPDATE 1/5/11
I have found two things that make me feel a little bit better about this whole thing:

1) There is or was a band that apparently had some small degree of popularity, called "The Jodie Foster Rxperience."
2) The web-site tonyblair.org is very ANTI-Blair.

7. Recently I started this process of trying to get a hold of people from my past, generally just to say hi, in many cases to explain stuff and in some cases to appologize. I've already contacted some of them, some have responded, some are now my friends again. Others I have had trouble getting a hold of, so I'll list them below- if it's you, I'd love to get an email, if you know that person, let em know I'd like to say hi. If I'm going to appologize or at least explain/appologize, there'll be a star, so if you think I owe you an appology you'll more or less get it; if there's no star, let's talk, I can probably explain and I might appologize.

Andrew Ryscavage- CU-Boulder, about 99/00, medical research tyep stuff, Students for Justice in N. Ireland.
*Kevin Brennan- CU-Boulder, somewhere around 00, maybe 03, SJNI.
*Jayme Springer- CU-Boulder about 02, WAAKE-UP.
Joelle something greek- Cornell, about 02, Young Democratic Socialists
*Tiffany Duhl- CU-Boulder, late 1990s.
**AJ Chodan(s)- Up-state NY, SCA, glasses.

Probably the most important one, and SHE IS GETTING AN APPOLOGY, is named Rose. She's from Texas, redhead, glasses, film studies, studied in Dublin Ireland in 02, Star Trek fan, progressive, maybe Irish Republican. If I had money I would offer a reward to whoever tells her about this.

These lists aren't perfectly seperated, but below this are people who I basically haven't tried to contact for one reason or another, but wouldn't mind hearing from them. With most of them, at the very least, I hope they get the message that I'm just saying hi.

*Sarah Beth Parks- CU-Boulder around 00, last I heard in CT.
Robert Munoz- CU-Boulder SOC PhD about 03
April Lindt- CU-Boulder around 97
*Lisa Miller- Boulder CO, about 45-50 years old, PA
Josh Curfman- Longnont/Firestone/Denver. Photography, "geeking," snakes, Star Trek
John Graham- Boulder around 06, liberal activist, Jewish.
Steve Nash- Denver cop-watch
Pamela White- I actually might bug her soon. Edits the Boulder Weekly.
Abbas Barzegar- cu-Boulder around 2002.
Scott Silber- CU-Boulder about 98, WAAKE-UP.
*Ira Chernus- Religious Studies Prof. CU-Boulder
*Kathleen Shields- republican-socialist from Tyrone, last I heard was living in the US
*Adisa Hubjer- Denver, CO- I would really like to know where Chris buried.
Basically anyone from Jade Mountain (the 1990s Boulder Alternative Energy company) especially Sue, Kiley, Jeff, Rocco, probably a bunch of others.
*Marc Roth- Maanged University Club.
Chad Miller- same.
Some others from the U-Club, especially Phil, Allison, Paul, the Adams.
Bridget ???- CU-Boulder about 04, SJNI, from Thronton/Northglenn.
Can't remember- From Texas, Young Democratic Socialists around 01/02, likes South Park, blond, glasses, female
Basically anyone who was involved significantly in SJNI especially Sarah, Autumn, Christine??, Mark Archer.
Basically anyone who was involved in DSA/YDS and doesn't have an attitude
Dan Stephens- CU-Boulder History PhD about 02, Greens.
Amy Roberts- CU-Boulder about 98, SJNI from PA.
Brian Coleman- CU-Boulder about 96, student government.
Susan Unger- Longmont, DSA.
Megan Gill- CU-Boulder 01, activist
Ben Dunn- CU-Boulder around 00, activist
Soyun Park and Bill Vandenberg, either currently or in the past with the Colorado Progressive Coalition
Paul Bradley, Elaine Pelton- CU-DSA CU-Boulder 95
Mark Archer- CU-Boulder about 2004

(I've ended up casting a very wide net, but it can't hurt) (that doesn't mean I got everyone, unless I barely knew you at all, or you're absolutely completely certain that I hate you, and you feel like contacting me, please do, even if we parted on sort of bad terms there's not a bad chance I'd like to hear from you)

I don't really expect any of these people to email me, although if they do that's cool. But if you worked at the Boulder Humane Society in 2006, odds are you remember me, and you're awesome- part of me would like to explain stuff, but in general I'd just like to say hi and thanks for making that such an awesome experience. Same thing goes for the Longmont Humane Society in early 2007. Looking at both shelters, there's about 10-45 people I wouldn't mind hearing from, including some volunteers- you know who you are.

7b. On a related note, I have recently become aware of a problem I had for about 15 years until recently. I would often mentally freeze when someone said something to me that required me to defend myself and explain why that person was wrong. If you have some negative thoughts about me and remember a situation like that, please give me a chance to explain. (more generally, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to explain and/or appologize for basically anything that negatively affected your opinion of me)

8. I just added a links list and blogroll, apparently using this sort of new browser I can do anything.

On the links list- it's far from complete, but soon you'll have an even better idea of what my secret agenda is.

On the blogs- I think that might be about all of them. With all of them except "Choosing Democracy" I used to read a lot the last 6 years, but not the last 4 months, and even if I was familiar with them recently, I would say that I do not totally endorse everything they say (probably goes without saying). With Choosing Democracy, although I've only read a little the last last two months, I'm pretty familiar with the author, I probably endorse 100% of what he says.

9. Sources. I probably should have done this earlier, but here are some notes on sources.

As far as non-Irish stuff, it's fairly scattered. I got my degree in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I've read about 3/4 of the web-site of the Southern Poverty Law Center. the last two months before the election I probably read about 30 articles a day about the election. Since then I haven't followed current events much. about 1/2 of the Slayer piece is based on Wikipedia, but since I have read a ton of stuff there that I already knew and only about .5% of it I know was wrong, I imagine that a very large majority of wikipedia is accurate. A bunch of other misellaneous sources, some of which would be the three main blogs I read- Doug Ireland, David Corn, and Marc Cooper, plus the Washington Post and the New York Times and the BBC. I used to get a lot of my international news from the Irish Times, Ireland's largest paper. I used to read The Nation quite a bit. Miscellaneous other sources, mostly left-wing, plus the local MSM paper. I haven't watched TV much lately, but I love the Daily Show and Colbert Report. I also enjoy the following MSM columnists- Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, EJ Dionne, Eugene Robinson, and Harold Myerson. I also read the Huffington post a lot.

On Ireland, here are my sources:

Current events. The last 12 years I've read an average of 125 articles a week (not counting stuff I've read when researching posts for this blog). They break down like this:
30% BBC
22% Irish News (main paper read by the Nationalist Community, professional (and very awesome staff based on my experience) but leans towards the SDLP)
22% The Irish Times (Main paper in Ireland, about as objective and unbiased as American MSM, but might almost lean towards Unionist; at the very least I probably wouldn't call them Nationalist and certainly not republican)
5% An Phoblacht/Republican News (Sinn Fein's paper)
9% Three community papers in Belfast aligned with SF
5% Irish Indymedia
5% Sunday Business Post (kind of like the Wall Street Journal, fairly-very good news, and unlike the WSJ, fairly-very good opinion section)

miscellaneous sources- for example, party web-sites, and I also read through an on-line database describing each death in the Troubles.

Books
Some Gerry Adams book (read it in 1996)
The Troubles by Tim Pat Coogan (1997) (Coogan is widely considered the top source on the conflict)
The IRA by Coogan (1997)
Northern Ireland: The Orange State by Michael Farrell (Farrell is so widely respected that he was National Chair of the Irish Council on Civil Liberties, basically the ACLU in Ireland in the 1990s) (read it three times the last 12 years, something like 98, 01, 04)
War and an Irish Town by Eamonn McCann (McCann is widely considered something like one of the top five sources, last I checked he has a regular columns in three mainstream Irish publications) (read it three times the last 12 years, something like 98, 01, 04)
McCann: War and Peace in Northern Ireland by McCann (read it three times the last 12 years, something like 98, 01, 04)
Black and Green by Brian Dooley (Dooley's probably somewhere around 10th in terms of a widely respected source, and has worked for the BBC, Amnesty International, and Public Citizen) (read it twice in the last 12 years something like 98 and 2002)
Ireland: The Propaganda War by Liz Curtis (don't know much about her, probably also somewhere around 10th (this time, it's mostly a guess, but I have seen her name around the Internet)) (read it sometime around 1999)
The Price of My Soul by Bernadette Devlin (read it about 99)

10. It might be relevant in some cases for me to explain that I believe in responding to everything (this is about arguments from my opponents, not literally everything), I will almost NEVER not respond to something, especially when I believe that silence will leave people with the impression that what was said is a valid point. A good example of this is the post "Responding To The Homophobes."

11. Labels/tags. I have started using these a lot more than I used to. I just went through (7/14/09) all the non-star trek/non-lyrics posts and adding a bunch of labels. I'm now going to do the same for the lyrics posts and in about a week I'll do the Star Trek ones too. So you might pull up an essay on some topic, as well as a lyrics post where at least one song significantly touches on that subject. (this is now more or less complete)

UPDATE 10/15/10 I might clear this up soon, but the labels, which besides this note are finished, could be better done. If you want tget all the posts for that issue, you MIGHT want to go through 1-several labels. i.e. Socialism and socialists. Because there are some that are only on one label and not both.

12. A note on the poems.

UPDATES 12/22/09 I have nailed down what is beyond any doubt the best method for calculating that stuff. I'm going to re-calculate each poem and THEN, in about 5 months I'll change the info about this in the notes, and there will be TWO * to indicate that it is the last, final and best calculation.

13. I should explain something about my (pretty solid) estimate of what % of the time did the IRA's operations result in civilian casualties. Here's what I'm NOT counting as operations: Training, intelligence gathering, acquiring weapons, defending nationalist areas during riots with the security forces and/or loyalists, patrols of nationalist areas, dealing with alleged criminals and informers, feuding- I'm pretty sure that's it.

14. Below is a description of each post, except for the lyrics and Star Trek posts. This way you'll have some idea of what will interest you enough to read. They're in the order in which they appear, starting with Dec. 2008.

"Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey" Briefly describes one of Ireland's top 3 greatest republicans/socialists/anti-racists/etc.

"Anti-Racism and Republicans" Discussion of racism in Ireland.

"American Democracy" Discusses ways to make America more democratic.

"Slaytanic Wehrmacht" I'm open minded to the possibility that this one was a waste of my time, but I discuss whether or not the thrash-metal band Slayer is racist and why they should do more to counter racism among their fans.

"SMASH COMBAT 18" Mostly just a link to an awesome YouTube video that explains how the IRA is going to smash Combat 18 (an armed Nazi organization).

"Guilty of Being White" Explains that A) the concept that people of color can't be racist is ridiculous and B) that that concept is damaging the anti-racist cause.

"Holocaust Denial" I describe something that I think might help combat Holocaust Denial, and if it's helpful, almost no one knows about it.

"Invisible Comrades" A discussion of LGBT issues in relation to Ireland.

"I Still Hate Sarah Palin" Mostly providing some extra ammo for people to kick the shit out of her.

"The Black and Green" Discusses connections between people of color in America and the republican/nationalist/human rights struggles in Ireland.

"The Spirit of Robert Briscoe" A discussion of Jews and ant-semitism in relation to Ireland.

"Fuck Fascism Before It Fucks You" A discussion of the slander that the Republican Movement is fascist and why the IRA did not have the brightest idea in acceepting aid from the DEVIL during WWII.

"I Owe My Allegiance To The Working-Class" A discussion of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, republican dissidents in general, and why Seamus Costello is tied with Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey as Ireland's second greatest republican/socialist.

"Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter" Started as an explanation of my theory that only something like 5% of SF (and I pretty much imply that that's true for the republican family in general) is anti-Protestant. Morphed into a more general discussion of why Ireland should be united.

"Stoop Down Low Party" An explanation of why the Social Democratic and Labour Party of N. Ireland doesn't belong in the Socialist International.

"The Red and the Orange" A discussion of the Progressive Unionist Party.

"The Brown And The Green" a refutation of a paper that argues that Sinn Fein is fascist.

"Joint Sovreignty Assembly" An idea I had for a way to resolve the N. Ireland conflict.

"The Stars and Bars" This is about the left, (what I call) the populist far right, the Confederate Flag, Nazi skinheads, and the Civil War

"O'bama Nuclear Assaults Your Daughters and Your Sons" covers a lot- a song kind of about Obama, the music I listen to, and two new altered songs.

"Sell-Outs?!?!?!?! Sinn Fein, the Good friday Agreement, and The World" A look at why Sinn Fein compromised with the GFA.

"The Brown and The Green Part II" I explain an aspect of twisting certain lyrics.

"Loyalist Riots, Poverty, and Irish Labour in N. Ireland" An article I wrote in 2005 about poverty and politics in the Unionist community.

"Obama, Wall Street, Auto-Workers, and the far-right" might have been a waste of my time, but probably not.

"No Human Being Is Illegal" Some good arguements in favor of supporting immigrants.

"Tying It All Together: Anti-Bigotry Material On This Blog" Ties all the anti-hate/oppression stuff together and offers one more idea.

"African-Americans, Labor, Israel/Palestine, and the North" Links to two interesting articles on the North and some commentary on one of them.

"Responding to the homophobes" Something that might be helpful in combatting homophobia.

"Israel and anti-semitism" A look at anti-semitism among supporters of the Palestinians.

"The Regan/Nixon Brigade" GOPer Saul Anuzis isn't very consistent in opposing fascism.

"In The Spirit of Malcolm X" A suggestion that Sinn Fein should seriously adjust their approach to America.

"Anti-Muslim Bigotry" Just what it says.

"More on Israel and Anti-Semitism" At this point I may have gone a little overboard, something like 20% of my blog is more or less about anti-semitism. But Jon Stewart's awesome, you fuck with him, you fuck with me.

"Red Alert Chief O'Brien!" A brief intro to my thoughts on Star Trek.

"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reviews A" Reviews/analysis/commentary on the first four episodes. The rest of the ST posts are available by clicking on the "star trek" label.

"Debumking The Birthers" A response to those who think Obama wasn't born in the US.

"Even More On Israel And Anti-Semitism" a debate between me and an anti-semite.

"A Brief Intro To N. Ireland"

"From Belfast To Bethlehem: Ireland Palestine Solidarity"

"Anti-Muslim Bigotry Part II" A brief note.

"Some Thoughts on Star Trek" Basically what it says, not a review of an episode.

"Live Long And Prosper" The final (for now) Star Trek post.

"Dr. Laura, Sarah Palin, and Racism" A brief note.

"Responding to opponents of the 'Ground Zero Mosque'" A brief note.

"Newt Gingrich, anti-colonialism, and Obama" A brief note.

"Glenn Beck, American Unity, Capitalist Exploitation" Some brief notes.

"Religious Bigotry of "New Atheists" Most of my thoughts about religion and atheists.

"Irish-Americans, Northern Ireland, and YDS" I clarify something from my recent past offer some new thoughts about N. Ireland.

"Peter King, Muslims, Torture, and N. Ireland" Explains how king has a racist double standard.

"RIP Manning Marable" A brief note.

"Policing in N. Ireland, and Catholic Recruits" A brief update and a letter to the editor discussing the situation in 2002.

"Anti-Sectarian" There is one poem in this post, one of the best poems I've done. Below that are more notes on addressing religious bigotry in N. Ireland.

"Release Marian Price"

"The Orange Order- Those Sectarian Bastards!!" A minor adjustment to my opinion of the Orange Order.

"Taxes, the GOP, Texas, and Capitalism" Two important opinion columns: one by Harold Meyerson and one by Paul Krugman.

"The Anti-Apartheid Struggle and Republicans" Notes on some connections between the two.

"Israeli Apartheid and Palestinian Civil Disobediance" Some justifications for using the term "Apartheid" in connection with Israel.

"Racism" Some good evidence that the GOP is racist.

Also, I have done about 30 posts of altered lyrics. About 1/3 of the songs are based on songs whose politics I like- the other half- no, not at all, which is what makes it really interesting and creative- I'll leave it up to you to read the first post about how I "write" the lyrics, it's here. The rest of the lyrics are at available by clicking on the "lyrics" label.



Some other topics I'll probably address soon:

1. Women in Ireland (in three different posts I've already done something like 2/3 of this post).
2. Why everyone should donate .1% of their income to the Pat Finucane Centre so they can open an office in every part of the North and Paul O'Connor will finally have the power he deserves.