poirot: Sorry, but behind-the-shed schoolboy sniggering doesn't appeal to everyone.

Yes it does. You just don't want to admit it. Oh to be so "Holier than thou." I guess you must spend your life in fits of depression. Get out in the sunshine & enjoy life. It's great out here. Preferably naked. Nothing like a good laugh to get the endorphins flowing dearie.

effin' old sourpuss.

Aww...Jayb....just because I'm not a fan of base sexual innuendo on its own and not surrounded by witty banter, .....doesn't mean I haven't got a sense of humour.

I try and laugh as much as I can - It's why I come to OLO so often, there's loads of material here.

(actually I quite liked "effin' old sourpuss")

I note the radio station has apologized to Gillard and suspended the shock-jock (who it turns out is quite sick and Julia could have pushed over with a feather instead of with the response given and calmness she displayed).

Onya Hasbeen, so unexpected. The general public's reaction, and the radio station's judgement of that and the action it has taken, stand in contrast to your philistine view.

There are some whose posts I usually glide over, like I did with UOG before he went missing, and you are one of them. I have no concern with cogently expressed views that oppose my own, that's the reason I read OLO, but your posts constantly wreak of the dumpster muck you speak of above.

Perhaps "Hasbeen" is your alter-ego, and you are actually quite a nice chap playing out a role. I prefer to believe this than you actually exist.

I find the subject uninteresting, but with every question of the ABC's Q&A being directed at gay marriage by the host, even if not asked by anyone and smirking questions of homoeroticism in the recent past, why shouldn't the tabloids ask if the PM's side kick is gay?

While partner benefits are now payable where a politician is in a de factor relationship, does that continue to apply if it is a partnership of convenience? Rulings elsewhere by government say no, fort example, by Immigration.

She sidestepped and criticised the question and said the question was 'absurd' and that she and Tim 'lived in the Lodge as a couple', instead of a simple yes or no. That is what leads the tabloids towards more questions.

It is not OK to ask that question but it is fine to continually allege the Opposition Leader is a sexist mysognist who hates women. That disputes the every basis of Abbott's marriage and his relationship with his wife and children. That is what is absurd.

....We are letting PC eat our national character.

Here here Belly!

Sticks and stones I say.

onthebeach,

You're a hoot.

You habitually go out of your way, hiking miles to twist any situation into a feminist-bashing exercise.

And when a jock, during a supposedly serious interview, asks the "Prime Minister" whether or not her partner is gay - because, let's face it, he's a hairdresser....you think that's fine and dandy.

My hairdresser is a bloke - married with two grown-up sons, etc.

Maybe Tim should call himself a "barber" - that way the puerile mentalities who haunt the media air waves and print pages (and the blogs) will take it for granted that he's straight.