It had been a toxic day to end a toxic parliamentary year. Even when Julia Gillard attempted to pay tribute to Ricky Ponting after his retirement announcement there was uproar. “Good example. Why don’t you follow it?” yelled an Opposition member.

Others on the Coalition benches joined in the shouting. “Order!” cried speaker Anna Burke. “I think the nation would be rather disappointed that, when we are talking about one of our cricket greats, you cannot even allow it to be heard. That is just ridiculous.“Ridiculous, yes. Childish, ugly and stupid as well.

But Labor has also done its share to bring the parliament into disrepute. On Wednesday, a frustrated Burke admonished both sides. “It is absolutely disgraceful that you treat your parliament with such contempt,” she told them.

Which raises the obvious question: If members themselves treat the institution with contempt, why should the rest of us show it any respect?

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/this-parliament-put-the-Christmas-grinch-out-of-work/

Like many journalists, Laurie Oakes has failed the pinch test. He has not looked beyond the crap on his windscreen, adjudicating that all of it has come from both sides of parliament (possibly more from that woman he hates), since that's where he was driving his car...

This is a furphy. Most of the political crap has been thrown at Julia from Tony Abbott's camp and from an over enthusiastically hypocrite MEDIA... relentlessly... All journos being eager to be the first one to claim the scalp of that red-headed woman, in a scoop... All this venom dispensed with a vigor rarely seen since I even cannot remember when — though I have seen much political shenanigans in this country, including Kerr.... 

So far the darling of the press, Toxic Tony, Detritus Tony, Tonicchio, Little Rattus, has not managed to crack the nut, so the media like laurie Oakes place him in the same basket case as Julia... totally discounting all the hard work she has done on many fronts despite a few doozies (that will eventually get fixed). Meanwhile Tony HAS DONE NOTHING but whinge and whinge... May be this whinging shows his "Australianess"?... At least the public has not been swayed too much by the mucking media and Tony latest polls shows he is tanking as he should. 

...

So congratulations to Julia Gillard for having the guts to enjoy a bit of a laugh by joining in a radio station spoof about the end of the world.

The prime minister’s YouTube address - “My dear remaining fellow Australians , the end of the world is coming” - revealed a comic talent she usually keeps well hidden.

“It wasn’t Y2K, it wasn’t even the carbon price; it turns out that the Mayan calendar was true,” she said. “Whether the final blow comes from flesh-eating zombies, demonic hell beasts or from the total triumph of K-pop, if you know one thing about me it’s this: I will always fight for you to the very end.

“And at least this means I won’t have to do Q&A again. Good luck to you all.”

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/there-will-be-an-apocalypse-under-the-government-I-lead/

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Amongst a gross ton of "news" in the NO-news-but-plenty-of-goss merde-och online media there is a small breaking-news item "7:33AM UN climate agreement extends Kyoto accord"... Nowhere in the Sunday Telegraph is there any article on the fact that there has been a world summit about "climate change" in Doha, Qatar... Unless I blinked, I could not find any... Yet there is 6 double-spreads plus the cover (I exaggerate here, there was only 3 double spreads plus a few titbits AND the cover) of conjecture about a nurse who may have taken her life for having been the recipient of a prank call... As well there is a good half page on a clothes manufacturer that has invented new size measurements to upgrade "XXL" to "petite +". It's psychological...

Thus, as an Aussie, I am proud of the merde-och press, defending the home honour under an unfair assault from the British tabloids (mostly owned by Uncle Rupe as well). All of them, down under and poms alike, always on the lookout for back-page goss and front page froth. That's the spirit... I could not have guessed a front page better than this... Mind you, the sports section in the Sunday Telegraph looked a bit thin today, unless it fell on the floor while reading the paper in the dunny... I was more interested about why a goss columnist was tired of Miranda (Kerr, not Devine), who, off course, was trying too hard to do whatever to make her arse look good...

But as the end of the world is nigh, why bother about asking hubby: "does my arse look too big in this"... Let's ask the psychos... I mean the psychologists... Bugger, I was going to give you a real link to this scientific study, but I lost it.... Anyway, it's not too late to smell like pizza...

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Meanwhile, reality is a hard boring slog... Things change at snail pace, really... It's not good for news organisations that are desperate to report the controversial happy-snappy-quickie death of the Aussie economy... We need entertainment. We need Pizza pizzaz! And I can't blame the merde-och outfit for being totally skeptical about global warming when Cardinal Pell and Tony Abbott have assured us countlessly that it's crap... Yes I know, Tony has changed his tune a bit, like one must change underpants, weekly. But deep in Tony's psyche, he has recognised the only way to be elected is to promise to do anything about climate change (as long as it is not Labor's way — if Labor had done an ETS, he would do a fake carbon tax, but since Labor did a real carbon tax, he will replace it with planting a few trees), then do as little as not much, pushing the joke to give good behaviour coupons to the polluters, in return for a smile. 

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UN climate talks in Doha have closed with a historic shift in principle but few genuine cuts in greenhouse gases.

The summit established for the first time that rich nations should move towards compensating poor nations for losses due to climate change.

Developing nations hailed it as a breakthrough, but condemned the gulf between the science of climate change and political attempts to tackle it.

The deal, agreed by nearly 200 nations, extends to 2020 the Kyoto Protocol.

It is the only legally-binding plan for combating global warming.

The deal covers Europe and Australia, whose share of world greenhouse gas emissions is less than 15%.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20653018

May Santa delay the end of the world till after the Aussie regain the Ashes...

And there is Neil Mitchell, himself the prophet of doooooommm....

Most Australians seem to have enjoyed Gillard's joke, although Melbourne radio presenter Neil Mitchell questioned whether the video is degrading to the office of Prime Minister, reports the Australian Times.

"Is it demeaning to the office to be doing something quite as silly as that, particularly when it's presented in quite a serious fashion?" he asked.

Gillard's spokesman brushed off the criticism saying: "What Australian doesn't mind a laugh from time to time?"

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/asia-pacific/50489/australian-pm-julia-gillard-confirms-end-world-video#ixzz2EVOSaHAw

She'll be right, mate....

And I believe it is now unacceptable to say "Merry Christmas"... Universities, in a new push not to offend anyone, have offended Father Santa and Mrs Claus, by banning the long time greeting from the list of tuitioning festivity monikers... Apparently the words are offensive to Jews, Muslims and mules that have demanded the right to be free from the tradition of carrying Mary on their backs for the last 2000 years....