With the utmost respect to our former leader, I think he should take a sick day if he is going to suggest that armed guards be placed outside of Irish hotels. Clearly his temperature needs to be checked and it is understandable that leaders are absolutely exhausted with this damn pandemic.
He no longer calls the shots but Leo Qurantino needs to talk with actual doctors about the type of shots people need right now. This is more like the kind of talk that we expect from American politicians who are on the National Rifle Association’s payroll.
Yes there is a crisis but will guns fix it?
The TD and former GP and former Irish PM is talking utter BS if he thinks guns are the solution to this problem. Enforcing quarantine is the right step even if it comes a year too late and I’m sure most people will agree that Gardai need more powers to act, detain and use force if necessary but guns are not designed to save lives, and the age of deputising people with guns and a badge
is long gone unless guests and pilgrims are to check out at High Noon.
DODGING A BULLET WHEN YOU LAND IN DODGE
Few people will see the harm in arming guards but it is an escalation that is uncalled for during a pandemic, and in the surveillance age. A friend pointed out to me that a 14-year-old boy recently stabbed someone and I cut him off, excuse the pun, to point out that An Garda can't just shoot teenagers and even a teenager with a knife can be stopped by a few brave guards with batons.
You don't bring a knife to a gun-fight and I'm sure a few guards can quickly knock sense into a kid wielding a knife. I believe that most crimes can be solved through a little detective work and the use of CCTV, and none by pulling a trigger. Guns might look good to the generations who have grown up watching the glorification of guns in film and television but I don’t think they work as well as people are led to believe.
ON YER BIKE
I've had two bicycles robbed at Atocha train station for example which was the site of Europe's worst terrorist attack that killed 197 people and wounded thousands. There is a police station there, CCTV and a well-armed police force. The police patrol the area with G36 Assault Riffles, and even security guards walk around with revolvers and ammunition belts carrying 18 bullets on clear display.
The weapons are not a deterrent to even bike crime and Pablo Bin Laden is probably building a criminal empire on stolen bikes that were caught on CCTV.
Yes machine guns can be used as a deterrent, and are required when confronting armed gangs and terrorists but Doctor Death is calling for armed guards to watch tourists. Is he feeling ok?
I’ve watched enough MacGyver to know that duct tape is as useful as a gun in a sticky situation.
Security guards with batons and handcuffs could do the same job and I’m sure a school prefect with their badge and a walkie talkie could monitor the halls of hotels, and remind people that the police will be called if they leave their hotel rooms.
I spent five years working in and around Leinster House and I never once saw a gun. As you can imagine the building is very secure and the only guns I ever saw on display was Leo Varadkar lifting weights in the Dáil Gym.
Put away the guns Tániste, no one is impressed with this desperate insecure act and unless you are getting money from Heckler & Kock or Remington, it is not worth arming guards when people need Pfiser shots instead of pistol shots.
Bullets aren’t useful in this fight but if An Taoiseach wants to fly to Washington for Saint Patrick’s Day like Leo Vadkar did last year, then tell him not to shake hands with the president on live tv.
Leo Vadkar made this international blunder at the same time Trump was banning flights from Europe.
To me the optics were terrible but we can argue that leaders didn’t know how serious things were in March even though Trump told Bob Woodward early on that he knew it was "Deadly stuff".
Maybe Trump didn’t know who Bob Woodward was, and the power that he played in bringing down Richard Nixon with his Washington Post report about Watergate but the investigative journalist was chastised for not reporting what he knew about the pandemic earlier, even more so than the “Leader of the Covid-free world” who knew it was "Deadly stuff" on February 7th.
The twice impeached president was a very different leader than Joe “I’m Irish” Biden but I think An Taoiseach needs to be prepared TODAY to cancel the trip in March.
Otherwise we might have to put armed guards outside the Taoiseach’s office who could end up disagreeing with his armed security, and then the next thing you know Leo Qurantino is directing a Terantino film.
Maybe that is his plan after all but I don’t buy into the idea of a Plandemic.
WHAT PLANDEMIC?
There is no real plan, and when I read the headline, https://www.irishpost.com/news/armed-guards-to-be-stationed-at-hotels-to-enforce-mandatory-quarantine-tanaiste-says-202960, I immediately e-mailed leo.varadkar@oir.ie to ask his staff for his official statement. I have yet to receive it but have received a receipt of my e-mail from the Justice Minister's Private Secretary.
When I went to his website, wwww.leovaradkar.ie the website was down with the message, “New Website Coming Soon.”
Typical, a guy who can’t even run a website is going to try and ruin the country. Makes me sick.
TOP GUN, Time to send in the military
It’s time to bring in the big guns and I would suggest, Ireland contacts the White House fast and ask how much it would cost to have a military fly over with either the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels display teams and get them to display the Irish tricolour without throwing a pandemic parade for An Taoiseach. The fly-over could actually end up being far cheaper that An Taoiseach’s trip to America but I know the Irish leader would probably love getting out of the country for a weekend and he probably doesn’t want to get caught taking a cheap flight to Lanzorante.
Both Joe Biden and Micheál Martin both need to do the right thing here and skip the soaking the shamrock tradition for something even more colourful and I think a military fly would be a far better than a firing squad by the hotel buffet.
With Brexit, we need to solidify our relations across the Atlantic but maybe Joe Biden should be invited to Ireland for Saint Patrick's Day and we can celebrate Saint Joseph's Day on March 19th.
What do you think?
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