The Bollocks People Talk About Politics Part 1*

"Well, you know the Mayan Prophecies, well, they say that the world will end in 2012 - and that's when Sarah Palin could become President!"

This is, of course, bollocks. Firstly, it is based on two big assumptions. Firstly, that the Mayan Prophecies will defy the record set by prophecies through the millennia by being accurate. This seems unlikely - not least because no fucker can decide what those prophecies actually mean. Secondly, this idea assumes that Palin will (a) run for President, (b) be nominated by her own (or, indeed, any) party and then (c) beat Obama at the actual election. There is no evidence that even (a) will occur - and it is a big leap from there to seeing her inaugurated as President.

But it is the little matter of the inauguration that truly shits on the idea that Palin is in some way a realisation of the end of the world in 2012 - if she ran/got nominated/won then she would become President in... 2013. After the supposed end of the world. See, US presidents are elected in one year, then actually take the office in the following year. Hence Reagan served as President from 1981 to 1989, Bush Snr from 1989 to 1993, and so on. There's a transition period in the US - something we just don't do here in the UK unless Gordon Brown is desperate to cling to power there is a hung parliament.

Don't get me wrong, I think President Palin is a terrifying idea, and I would far rather any Palin presidency took place after the world had ended rather than before. But there is nothing at all in the idea that she will be the fulfillment of the 2012 doom-mongering - in the highly unlikely event she is elected in 2012, she will be able to do bugger all about it until 2013.

*Both on da interwebs and in real life, so hyperlinks to particular testicular talkers on the subject of politics will not always be forthcoming.