EVERY WEEK, WE take a look at the best comments left by you, our lovely readers, on TheJournal.ie.

As always, the comments have attracted a lot of debate and discussion. This week, you’ve been talking a lot about ACTA and Sean Sherlock, Enda Kenny saying we all went ‘mad with borrowing’, Ivor Callely, putting a time limit on the dole, the cost of water in pubs,  Davos, and er, how often you eat potatoes, amongst other things.

So without further ado and in no particular order, here’s our picks for our favourite comments of the week.

Sean Sherlock’s plans for online piracy law was the source of a lot of fierce discussion this week. This comment by Burned Toast summed up a lot of people’s thoughts:

Dear Junior Minister Sherlock,

You had better ban second-hand book shops too, since the poor copyright-holder (i.e. the Publisher) only gets money once – when the book is sold as new. Therefore all second-hand and subsequent sales of books must be equally as wrong and should be banned forthwith! Or you could leave both the second-hand book market and the Internet alone and stay doing what you do best, just as soon as you find out what that is.

Yours sincerely,

A Member of the Irish Electorate who put you and your ilk into Government

Katie Price (briefly) stunned her Twitter followers earlier this week by urging closer EU fiscal union but warning against quantitative easing (yes, it was part of an advertisement), leading to Ciarán Reilly speculating on what would happen next:

Next up! ECB president, Mario Draghi discusses breast augmentation.

The poll about how often you eat potatoes got almost 4,000 votes (result: a lot of people REALLY like their potatoes). We liked these two comments from JustDieter and PatRyan on what exactly is the best way to cook a potato:

I find that when microwaved Irish potatoes loose their flavor, not to mention their wonderful nutrients. Boiled and mashed, seasoned with sea salt, pepper and spring onion is how I enjoy my potatoes. Boiled for 20 minutes and then roasted with goose fat is also a culinary fetish of mine.

And:

@JustDieter: Microwaving food retains more nutrition than traditional cooking as it’s a much gentler process. Boiling is particularly bad as all that water allows for the leeching of soluble nutrients, although this possibly affects potatoes less than other veg due to their thick skins. I personally can’t tell the difference between a microwaved and an oven-cooked baked potato. (Although I can tell the difference between a homegrown and store bought potato, no matter how it’s made) but I would never use a microwave to make mash/roast potatoes/chips though. I like the sound of your goose fat roast potato, I may try that sometime.

Charles White gave his experience of how doctors and the pharmaceutical industry can interact beneath an article on how the ESRI has suggested pharmaceuticals should be much cheaper in Ireland:

The docters do benefit. I worked for years in Medical Materiel and Resource Managment. It is not always in a monitary value but they benifit through marketing gifts. Look at all the name brand products you see on the Doctors desk, ie a GSK mug and note pads Phzr embossed stethiscopes. Bayer desk calenders. We would get massive tins of cakes and popcorn, wine baskets, tickets to shows and sports events, you name it. If you can’t see it your eyes are closed.

Enda Kenny’s comments about how Irish people had gone ‘mad with borrowing’ angered a lot of people – but a lot also agreed with him. 1 Human Being had this to say:

The cause of this crisis was not the people’s fault it was a number of things including the government( both sides) blowing bubbles. The bankers being unregulated as the regulator was not even enforcing light regulation. The media having a directing influence on the populace and continuing the bubble and telling everyone they should get on the property ladder. The property developers upping prices on houses and apartments that where made substandard as the bubble continued. And the solicitors who lapped up all the commission from dealing with buying and selling houses.
Mr kenny has his rose tinted glasses on me thinks.

On a thread with photographs of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Martin Dorgan looked at how landing on the moon changed the world:

Best achievement ever by mankind led to many things we take for granted today ,if it were restarted today would create about 10,000 jobs directly and innumerable indirect jobs .Pity to think that poverty and disease cannot be eliminated in the world with about a tenth of the budget that was used for the Apollo project.

The hilarious/terrible story about the man who accidentally shot himself in the head with a nail gun but didn’t notice  (on the same day that Paul Daniels chopped off his finger using a circular saw) elicited this response from DubInnNaas:

Don’t let himself or Paul Daniels near your house to do DIY!

The Open Thread about what you would do with the €1.25 billion payment to Anglo bondholders had a lot of interesting suggestions. This one from Joe Bloggs was especially well-thought-out:

250,000,000 renewable energy projects.
250,000,000 primary/secondary education.
250,000,000 3rd level/post doc research.
100,000,000 hospital facility upgrades, ward openings.
100,000,000 transport improvement. No major projects like metro, just fixing all the problems and pot holes.
100,000,000 local tourism / county amenity awareness with incentives for people to holiday in Ireland.Dear prospective future bondholders. Unsecured bonds mean they are not secured or guaranteed. Your company/the company you are looking to invest in has excellent sources of educated and skilled people. The work force has access to medical assistance if needed. Transport connections will heighten growth prospects. Investments are less vulnerable to oil price fluctuations/carbon emissions tax due to green renewable energy sources. There is also plenty to do around the island with lots of great places to see at a discounted price.

By investing in Ireland you are endorsing a better, more economical and equal society which will improve your corporate image globally.

Sincerely,

Ireland

(In the next comment, Joe Bloggs added: “And eh… 250,000,000 for me to take math classes…”)

And finally… this video of a Lego factory made entirely out of Lego impressed Annmarie FlynFarrel’s kids. She tweeted @thejournal_ie:

My boys are amazed, now they are trying to work out how they could make it lol #legoistimeless

Aw. And here’s the video she was referring to:

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