It’s just that the strength of capitalism lies in its ability to adapt itself to new realities.

SO, how long did you last? Too often, we drink ourselves silly over Christmas promising that January is going to be different. As we cheerily glug it back all through December, New Year’s Day looms, symbolising enforced abstinence and a return to purity. For a few weeks at least, the weight of our sinfulness will be lifted.

CONFESSION is good for the soul so, hands up, I was wrong last week. Like everyone else, I expected Barack Obama to win New Hampshire.

Even some Republicans see an advantage when it comes to tackling the big foreign policy questions if the nation is led by someone who isn’t milky white, who didn’t grow up amid east coast privilege and who isn’t tainted by Iraq.

GERARD HOGAN, in his extended foreword to Dermot Keogh’s and Andrew McCarthy’s book, The Making of the Irish Constitution 1937, wonders if it is asking too much to give Eamon de Valera some credit where credit is due?

I AM the bearer of good news. About 8,000 people were executed last year around the world. How is that good news, you might ask? And is the death penalty an appropriate topic of discussion during the season of goodwill?

“IF you’re Irish come into the parlour

MANY people’s reaction to Morning Ireland’s report last Monday about a new road safety scheme specifically targeted at citizens from eastern Europe would have been “not a moment too soon”.

Venables and Thompson — and the fictional Jack — were lucky in the sense that the State intervened when they were at a very young age.

AGAINST my better judgment, I have started Christmas shopping. Wandering aimlessly around Easons the other day, they seemed to be doing a brisk business in Bush countdown calendars. A variant on the traditional Advent calendar, it enables you to tick off the remaining days until a new US president is elected next November and Dubya leaves the White House in January 2009.