Willie O'Dea's bullshit.

Why does he get any space in the paper to make himself look good?

Fianna Fail have been running this country for over 10 years. So if bankers aren't banged to rights by now there is clearly only one group to blame. Whether it's because the laws are not there or because the willpower is not there, it all comes back to FF and Willie O'Dea was a minister in that government. Screw you Willie, it's entirely your fault!

At the same time, I'm sick of hearing how Bernie Madoff is already locked up in the USA and nothing has happened here. Bernie Madoff was a slam-dunk, he took other people's money and spent it on boats, holidays and solid gold crappers.

Seanie Fitz and friends encouraged other to engage in baroque financial schemes, apparently with the blessing of the financial regulator, working around laws that obviously aren't strict and clear enough. Again, the fault of the FF government who thought the regulator was a great fella and who did nothing to clear up these laws.

So while Sean Fitz should be banged up, the comparison with Bernie Madoff is just lazy, populist crap and continuing to make it just lowers the quality of argument on the topic.

in reference to: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/odea-its-taking-too-damn-long-to-bring-the-bankers-to-justice-2316097.html (view on Google Sidewiki)

Random Turkey Burgers

I'm minding the kids for a few days. So not only am I cooking, I have to cook things they will eat too. I bought some turkey mince with the intention to cook turkey burgers. Looking around the net for recipes, I found that about the most important thing about turkey burgers is all the other stuff you put in since turkey itself has very little flavour. So here's what I put in my turkey burgers today. They were tasty enough and the kids ate all of theirs which is fairly remarkable. I picked a few things that I figured would give them some flavour - salami, olives, garlic, white pudding and some random other stuff. I just squished it all up together in a bowl with my hands, shaped it into burgers and then grilled them. The amounts below are what I used today and in no way represent an ideal amount. It would almost certainly be better with more of some and less of another but I have no idea which.

• 450g turkey mince.
• Half a onion, chopped.
• 1 slice of brown bread, turned into crumbs.
• 1 egg white, beaten a little.
• 2 slices (12g?) of Aldi Salami Di Milano, ripped into small bits.
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped.
• Half an inch of white pudding (20g?).
• 8 olives in brine, chopped.
• Various herbs and stuff, I think it was celery salt, cumin, basil, thyme, salt, black pepper, Lidl Puszsta spice mix.
• Cheddar cheese, grated - I didn't use it but I saw it suggested and I'm putting it here to remind me.

I used half of that to get burgers for 1 adult and 2 kids and I cooked these really easy potato wedges which the kids ate too, despite being a bit burned.

Oh, there's also this which looks pretty good and I might try it at some stage.