I DON’T know what’s more confusing — the American electoral system or the controversy over whether or not Cian O’Connor’s horse, Waterford Crystal, was drugged.

THE future of the national airline seems to be on automatic pilot, and to judge from the confusion at cabinet level the Government, like Aer Lingus, seems to be going around in circles.

BERTIE AHERN’s Cabinet reshuffle was not so much like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but more like declaring the iceberg to be a national monument.

THE latest report on binge drinking and its effects comes with the almost mandatory recommendation that draconian taxes be applied to the demon to try and solve the problem. It won’t solve the problem, of course.

THE announcement this week that €85 million has been allocated to open new hospital facilities and take on extra staff, could have been in a script from an episode of Yes, Minister.

RAY BURKE and NASA’s capsule, Genesis, have a few things in common. They were both in orbit and both came crashing down to earth in spectacular fashion.

ALL the Republican convention in Manhattan was short of this week was a guest appearance by the eccentric former priest Neil Horan.

ON the face of it, it seemed that the South Western Area Health Board (SWHB) was to be commended when it took action against a Rathgar nursing home on a number of counts following a visit by a team of inspectors twice this month.

IT is impossible for those of us not affected by the almost Burke and Hare-type deception carried out by so many hospitals, in collusion with pharmaceutical companies, to understand the anguish of those parents.

WHEN he proclaimed his dogma of decentralisation, it was not Charlie McCreevy’s intention that he should lead by example.