In real estate, there is the old adage that you should never buy the best house in a bad (or even ordinary) street. But if you can place your mitts on the worst house in the best street, you're cooking. It's called "location, location, location..."...

In the democratic jargon, some people are pushing to maintain the traditional royal democracy tooting traditions and so forth. Straight-forward democracy is not the panacea for the best governance but, should the people be well educated, it should be. Having the remnants of a dark ages convention of force with religious overtone ruling over democracy is debasing to the proper thinker. Some people don't want to rock the boat, some people are enamoured with royalties, princesses and toad princes but I am not. I think royalty in a "constitutional" democracy is like driving a modern car while carrying a steam engine as a spare, just in case. Idiotic but traditional. Idiotic traditions...

Queen Elizabeth II has touched down in Canberra for the start of her 16th official tour of Australia.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Governor-General Quentin Bryce and ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher headed the official party to welcome the Queen and Prince Philip at Fairbairn Air Base.

The welcome also included the presentation of a bouquet to the 85-year-old monarch by Margaret Cunningham, who presented the first bouquet to the Queen on her first visit to Australia.

A group of about 200 Canberra school children, chosen from each school in the ACT, were also among those who welcomed the Queen.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-19/queen-touches-down-in-australia/3579686

Hopefully in one hundred years time, my cartoons and my thoughts will be revered by the remnants of humanity on this little planet... But if trends do not crash, the fingering twittering mindless youth — by then, old and decrepit disoriented adults — will still be like the kids of one of the "Road Warrior" movies (Mad Max for the Aussies) where they "member" (remember) the (broken) social links via old broken 78 RPM records — and end up in the shell of what became the "PowerHouse Museum" in Sydney...

What a hoot... But I do not seek fame. really... I seek people understood their own action and their own influence on the future of this planet. This is why I can say with confidence that Tony Abbott is an imbecile.

"The wobble" is how Prime Minister Julia Gillard's greeting to Queen Elizabeth II is being described after they met in Canberra yesterday.

Ms Gillard chose not to curtsy and instead opted for a head bow when she met the Queen, who had just arrived for her 16th tour of Australia.

But Australia's queen of etiquette, June Dally-Watkins, has strongly disapproved of Ms Gillard's greeting.

"I saw the Prime Minister kind of wobble and I didn't know, did she try to curtsy? I didn't know what she was doing. I just laughed," she said.

"I was laughing out loud because I thought it was really hilarious and of course very rude.

"But I just couldn't understand what that movement was. What was she doing?"

The Queen spent this morning cruising Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin and visiting the Canberra flower festival, Floriade.

She later spent the afternoon touring the gardens at Government House in a solar-powered golf cart.

The monarch had asked to be taken to see the kangaroos in the grounds so she could take a photo.

This morning, Ms Gillard said she chose to bow her head as she shook the Queen's hand because that is what she felt comfortable with.

"The advice to me was very clear - that you can make a choice with what you feel most comfortable with," she said.

"That's what I felt most comfortable with. The Queen extended her hand, and I shook her hand."

The official advice on meeting with the Queen is that there are "no obligatory codes of behaviour - just courtesy".

"However, many people wish to observe the traditional forms of greeting," the official Royal website says.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-20/gillard27s-royal-greeting-slammed/3581254

Don't misunderstand me... I respect the person called Betty Windsor as much as my good next-door neighbour... It's the inflated traditional titled position that I cannot stand. And to some extend, I believe that the queen of clover (clubs) should be far more respectful of Julia, than Julia of her. See, Julia is a "brave" fighting woman born into the bottom rungs of society, who is a redhead and an atheist — while Betty was accidently born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Julia is promoting the welfare of this planet as much as she can, having to fight against an irate illogical ningnong called Tony (and his butt-licking lackeys) — who the queen will hold secret talk with... Of course the ritewingnut loopy Tony is seeing this as an opportunity to learn more about "leadership" as if he was not annoying the crap out of us, already... prepare for more misunderstandings and grandstanding from the little crapper...

TONY ABBOTT has said he would not wind back the clock on abortion law should he become prime minister and argued his personal evolution had been in a ''reassuring'' direction for progressives.

The Opposition Leader yesterday rejected feminist academic Susan Mitchell's recent accusation that he would use high office to impose conservative social values on the country.

Mr Abbott said Australians needed only to revise his record to find reassurance, and becoming prime minister did not make a person ''less predictable''.

Becoming prime minister normally made politicians ''more responsible, more conscious of their obligations to the wider world and particularly to the totality of the Australian community'', he said.

Mr Abbott told the Herald he would not turn back the clock on abortion laws. ''Look at the record in government. It didn't happen.''

And it won't happen? ''No.''

End of story? ''End of story.''

Mr Abbott indicated if the contentious issue of embryonic stem cell research, the subject of a vigorous parliamentary debate and a landmark conscience vote in 2002, returned to Federal Parliament, it would again be a conscience vote.

CRITICS of Labor prime ministers look for fodder whenever the Queen is around. Paul Keating's guiding arm, as he ushered her through a crowd, became an assault on the royal person.

In chatterland, Julia Gillard's failure to curtsy has been seized on as new evidence of her general unfitness to lead.

It is all nonsense, of course - imagine what they would be saying if she had curtsied.

Portia Simpson Miller has been sworn in for the second time as Jamaica's prime minister with a pledge to ease poverty, boost the economy, heal political divisions and drop the Queen as head of state.

Simpson Miller, who was prime minister for a year and half until 2007, took the oath of office before roughly 10,000 guests on the grounds of the governor-general's official residence.

The 66-year-old politician scored a dramatic victory in last week's national elections, leading her centre-left People's National party to a 2-1 margin in parliament over the centre-right Jamaica Labour party. Her opposition faction won a dominating 42 seats in the 63-seat legislature, leaving the incumbent party with 21.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/06/prime-minister-jamaica-republic-portia

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/guess-what-the-abc-is-running-instead-of-the-queens-diamond-jubilee-20120526-1zbpe.html#ixzz1w4KTAGi2

see toon at top...