The Dáil’s passed a blasphemy law, which will make “blasphemous libel” a crime punishable by a fine of up to €25k. Now, I’m a major fan of free speech, including incitements to hatred and especially offensive speech – if you aren’t allowed to say things that people dislike, then where’s the freedom at all? – but I’d been wondering why this was such a big deal. The Irish constitution specifically requires that “the publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.” This is dreadful and illiberal nonsense, but why should the government be blamed just for doing what the constitution tells them to do?

I asked this on Facebook and John Mortell pointed out to me that no law has existed in the past – so bringing the law in wasn’t exactly the most pressing issue at the moment. (Although then again, neither is holding a second Lisbon Treaty referendum, but it hasn’t stopped them from wasting political capital on that.) So what’s the point in this? I genuinely don’t know – the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, is probably positioning himself to take over from Brian Cowen after Fianna Fáil lose the next general election, but surely even in Fianna Fáil being “the guy who outlawed blasphemy” isn’t a good thing?

After a long hiatus, I’ve decided to resume blogging (because the summer is so boring without a job). Since the US election (which did really interest me) I’ve become a bit bored with American politics. I don’t really like Obama and most of the politicians I did like have left the scene – Mark Sanford and Sarah Palin, although there is hope for Rudy Giuliani. So this blog will resume service but with a different focus from before.

It’ll be more eclectic than it was before and there’s going to be less focus on America. Blogging about American politics is hardly a ‘niche’ topic, and I doubt this blog ever will find a niche topic. That doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily write about everything that comes to mind, but I probably won’t have that much of a focus. I’ll try to keep posts short though.