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Weekend open thread: Me, crazy?

The Punch Team

by The Punch Team

15 Dec 04:59am

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Filed under: Weekend Open Thread

31 comments

Put your hand up if you had a better week than the guy in the picture below? Now read this very tidy wrap of some of the stuff we talked about this week.

Look, the whole thing was a gag. Photo: news.com.au

Got a story you want to share from the last seven days?

Simon Benson: Yep, Gillard’s survived but she didn’t fix anything

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31 comments

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    • Geronimo says:

      06:58am | 15/12/12

      After nine months of LNP Soap Opera in Queensland, three years of a monotonously prejudiced Abbott idolized by an hysterical Yap Yap Pyne, toss in the efforts of Hav-a-Chat Brandis for an example of biased stupidity, add the Duty Conspirator-at-Arms, Newman’s L`le Ol Army Buddy Brough and the Life-n-Times of the Liberal Oxymoron can be summed up thus:  You see, once upon a time there was this little freckle and it grew bigger and bigger and….

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      08:35am | 15/12/12

      After five years of the Labor circus in Australia, a time during which many electors decided wall to wall Labor carpeting was so bereft a good flooring was needed to be laid by other than those less skilled with BERs, Insulation and maintaining border control.
      The states have had the opportunity to start the positive action needed and there are so many pimples with Labor that have developed as pussy boils, a great federal lancing of the same will be eagerly awaited in the new year.

    • Kerryn says:

      07:30am | 15/12/12

      RIP to all those killed by a gunman in the US.  I don’t whether I’m more sickened or saddened.

      Already on Facebook though I have friends in the US who are already protesting against stricter gun control laws.  For the love of…Gun control seems to have worked very well here in Australia!!!!!!!!

      Reply

    • Dave says:

      07:45am | 15/12/12

      You obviously don’t live in western Sydney. It is not that bad….yet.

    • steiner says:

      08:01am | 15/12/12

      Egypt’s Theocratic Dark Age

      It certainly didn’t take the Muslim Brotherhood very long.  The new ‘constitution’ (if you can call it that) proposes to transfer power from the elected representatives to a bunch of male clerics from the Al-Azhar University.  We are not told what makes this particular bunch of men so unique and divinely equipped to interpret the word of Allah and impose it on the majority of the Egyptian population - namely Christians, gays and women.  Muslim men may be quite excited by the idea as they look over to Iranian clerical ‘Guardian Council’ that supposedly understands Allah’s word better than anyone else as they force women to cover themselves and condone the stoning of gay men.

      What a shame for Egypt that their revolution is turning their country into a theocratic dictatorship.  When the boats of Egyptian Christians and gays start arriving, will we be turning them back?

      Reply

    • Dr B S Goh, Australian in Asia says:

      08:30am | 15/12/12

      In Egypt and many countries in the developing countries the key problems are caused by overpopulation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Egypt. Egypt’s population increased from about 30m in 1960 to 82m now.

      The current population is not sustainable in such a dry region of Africa.

      Recently I was asked to participate in a project to work out better management policies of the the Aswan dam, a huge dam in Egypt built by the Soviets. My maths theorem have been used to manage hydrothermal systems, see http://www.cmap.polytechnique.fr/~bonnans/psfiles/ABL_Rio08.pdf

    • Bill says:

      09:31am | 15/12/12

      What a wet and windy weekend we have in front of us. Perfect for indoor… sports.

      Reply

    • Achmed says:

      09:34am | 15/12/12

      I am ‘surprised’ by the lack of cover in Punch of the OECD report.  It describes the Australian as having one of the worlds “stand-out” economies.
      “Australia has continued to weather the global economic crisis well reflecting sound macroeconomic policies and strong demand from China,” it found.
      The organisation said Australia had endured through the Global Financial Crisis better than almost any other developed nation because of its fiscal policies, its closeness to China and the swift cuts in official interest rates.
      Recommendations include the extension of the MRRT to other minerals and the introduction by the States of their own form of mining tax which would enable them to set different rates and an increase in the rate of the GST and a broadening of its base to other parts of the economy.
      It backed the introduction of the carbon tax, arguing it will help drive lower greenhouse emissions at a low cost.

      I have used the standard set by PJ and copied and pasted from news articles

      “The use of these market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, together with accompanying measures, should drive structural change in the economy, moving resources towards and encouraging investment in clean energy and less emission intensive technologies”

      Reply

    • pa_kelvin says:

      10:42am | 15/12/12

      What happened to Laurie Oakes usual Saturday article???
      Plenty for him to write about with the way the Slipper/Ashby thing went..

      Reply

    • Joe says:

      11:57am | 15/12/12

      Probably still trying to get Mal Brough to answer his phone.

    • Terry2 says:

      12:05pm | 15/12/12

      I note that Abbott and Hockey have denied any knowledge - any ‘specific’ knowledge in Abbott’s case - of this stitch up but so far Pyne, who earlier had admitted to having a three hour meeting with Ashby, is missing in action ; await his responses with interest.
      By the way, did the other staffer get her LNP job or the Coolum job with Clive Palmer ?

    • Joe says:

      02:22pm | 15/12/12

      I hope so. She, Ashby and Brough are going to need every cent for what will probably be the biggest defamation payout in Australian history.

    • Obi One says:

      02:36pm | 15/12/12

      You probably don’t understand enough about defamation.  In Qld, defamation damages are capped.

    • Mouse says:

      11:59am | 15/12/12

      After a week of politics, being offended and now massacres…...  on a lighter note…. What do you call a man who can swim without using his arms or legs ????
      Clever Dick   lol :oD

      Reply

    • pa_kelvin says:

      12:59pm | 15/12/12

      Hey Mouse… What do you call a fly without wings???
      A Walk….. smile

    • ma_kelvin says:

      02:33pm | 15/12/12

      @Mouse, I have been dreaming about your description of your trip out in the country.  Out at night by the camp fire looking up at the stars. I have seen the stars at night on North Stradbroke and that will always imprint on my mind, the milky way and the shooting stars.  In the city even if you turn your lights out you only get to see a small portion of what is really out there.  Its great to be a country mouse as the benefits are the senery of the outback and geniune country people that smile and say hello.  Putting my lotto tickets in to take your trip out in the country.  Thinking of you keep in touch with your travels.

    • sunny says:

      04:21pm | 15/12/12

      Haha funny Mouse. If he was a real clever dick he would have used a custom built swim fin ..the Dick Fin (TM)

      What’s new pa_kelvin? Got any new inventions happening? Lightning Volts (TM) is cruising along, I’m just about a billionaire from it now and thinking about buying a private jet and a helicopter.

      ma_kelvin smile Hello. How was that for genuine, eh? Watch out for those country folk they’re all phonies!

    • Mouse says:

      04:27pm | 15/12/12

      pa_k,  what do you call a man with no arms & legs in the ocean???
      Bob       What do you call a one legged woman???  Ilene   What do you call a 7ft 300kg bikie?    Any damn thing he wants!!  lol :oD

      ma_k, I suppose that we don’t notice it much out here but I went to the city beginning of the week and at night could not believe that there were hardly any stars!!  Duh!!  How do you guys survive??  I felt a bit weird, no stars, am I still on earth??!!  :o/  Lotsa luck with Lotto. When you win, let me know, I will give you directions to some pretty incredible places.  lol :o)

    • Chris L says:

      03:50pm | 15/12/12

      I love how Moses was “high” upon the moutain.

      The battle between Freddy Mercury and Frank Sinatra is a good one as well!

    • Mouse says:

      02:30pm | 15/12/12

      hahahahaha Thanks for that pa_k, gorgeous little critters that they are!!  ;o)

    • Chris L says:

      03:48pm | 15/12/12

      He he he. They’re so furry grin

    • LC says:

      04:04pm | 15/12/12

      WTF ThePunch?

      Not a single post published today? None of them were uncivil, none of them were inappropriate, and all of them were relevant to the threads I had posted them in.

      What gives?

      Reply

    • Philosopher says:

      01:23pm | 16/12/12

      may as well question a wall of granite. Same result. ‘Never explain, never apologise’: that’s the Punch response to moderation.

    • stephen says:

      05:26pm | 15/12/12

      There are 17 professional symphony orchestras in America, (the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, one of them, is currently on strike and may never recover.)
      There are 12 such bands in Berlin - that’s a town - and 8 in Hamburg - that’s a big fat port city in the north.

      Phillip Roth, as a Writer has retired, Saul Bellow is dead, and there is a couple of magazine reviewers who might take their place but are getting paid too much to alter their format.

      Painters ?
      Cannot think of any in America who can be bothered ... besides, photography was always their premium visual medium, but even they are resorting to the Adv. agencies to get a name in lights.

      Someone once said that the decline of civilizations can first be recognized, historically, by the decline in its high cultures ... and it may be true ; if not, I do not think that the gun will help : America’s culture has always been one, not of design but through the force of Capitalism, specifically, the altruism of the philanthropist which has begun and maintained the Artist.
      American Artists are soon to be an endangered species, but her Wild West is booming.
      It’s time for some design, American style.

      Reply

    • PJ says:

      05:26pm | 15/12/12

      We all remember the OFFENSIVE SEXIST joke about Tony Abbott and his female chief of staff, both happily married, that was told at a CFMEU union dinner in Parliament House.

      A dinner with all the Gillard Government heavies in attendance.

      Mr Swan, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, Trade Minister Craig Emerson, Small Business Minister Brendan O’Connor, and Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis condemned the joke after it’s exposure, but most did not reveal whether they left in protest.

      No apology was given in Parliament for the offence caused..

      It followed shortly after we had to suffer sanctimonious lectures from the Labor party on sexism and misogyny, because as usual they had tried to steal the moral high ground on the issue. Totally offensive in itself.

      Worse was to come.

      At that dinner was, mixing with the Gillard Government heavies, according to Liberal Senator Eric Abetz:

      “[Ms Gillard] and her Labor ministers were deliberately dining last night with the CFMEU who have, amongst their officials, a man who has 60 CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS against his name.”

      The sexist joke from the comedian at the Dinner showed the Gillard Government cannot live up to it’s own standards on sexism.

      It showed that the Gillard Government does not hold the higher ground on sexism.

      it suggests that the Gillard Government is not really concerned about the issues of sexism and misogyny.

      It suggests the Gillard Government is only interested in sexism and misogyny…only as far as it can be used to score political points for votes.

      And for all of the above I am offended.

      http://afr.com/p/national/labor_sexists_and_militants_dine_ukkxGbCA0dZa65RMqmZjBI

      Reply

    • Tim says:

      01:59pm | 16/12/12

      Im offended that you need to post the exact same comments on multiple threads.

    • Achmed says:

      03:42pm | 16/12/12

      I’m offended that PJ’s only refernces are right wing newspaper articles. I’m offended that anyone could through some twisted logic blame the audience at a function for the jokes told by a comedian on stage as part of their act.

      Did Tony attend his local Catholic church today?  If so that could suggest he condones the behaviour of some priests

      Perhaps we should be looking at how many members of the Liberal Party have gone bankrupt and/or cost shareholders and investors their life savings while they continue to live the millionaire lifestyle.

    • stephen says:

      05:58pm | 15/12/12

      I got my beef madras cooking tonight, and for 1 and a half hours - it’s page 169 in my new recipe book - but my previous efforts did not resemble the accompanying photographs - fido dug the earth, I saw, and there was my other korma.

      Never ate a good curry - anywhere.
      Channel 10 ... Help !

      Reply
 
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