Denis Ryan has had a busy time of it. On the 86-year-old former cop’s call list this morning was the Washington Post, the BBC and a courtesy call from the Victorian Premier, Dan Andrews.
The cop who tried to prosecute one of the most prolific paedophile priests in our history 46 years ago and came off second best received a compensation payment from the Andrews government yesterday. The undisclosed amount is one Ryan is satisfied with.
There have been a few backslappers step forward in the last 24 hours. In a tweet yesterday, senator Derryn Hinch described Ryan as “one of the bravest, moral men I have ever known.” Hinch might know of Ryan but he’s never met him.
Full column here.
The Turnbull Lib/Nat government loses its 32nd Consecutive Negative Newspoll, Mr Insider. Malcolm Trumble and his band of misfits now are the undisputed “champeens” of losing Newspolls and ex-ousted PM Tony Abbott must be quite disturbed that he hasn’t been asked to come back to the leadership.
https://tinyurl.com/ycjxgju3
Yes we know, we can all read.
A sore point with you isn’t it dear Tracy and I am only too happy to bring it to your attention bless you, your Liberal Party Membership was a waste of money wasn’t it. Cheers P.S. did you buy that TV yet?
Not a member of the Liberal party HB it’s the tedium of your stating the bleedin obvious as also pointed out by Gryzly 11.5.18 at 3.55 pm and replied to by TV 12.5.18 at 9.09am.
Nils carborundum bastardum Blofeld. You magnificent bastard!
Render unto them heaps ad infinitum!
(Computers only you have to punch the information in once not severally and repeatedly as with the jumped up monkeys!)
Wonderful to see you back on Mr Insiders magnificent blog dear fellow. Am looking forward to learning more about Climate Change. Cheers
Oh dear Henry, those Markles are just so, dare I say it? COMMON! You’d think they’d have learnt something about marrying below their station after that other American upstart bewildered the King.
Still one must not dwell, as per your request,
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/climate-change-facts
Very pleased to see the blog back up and running and some old familiar names.
I have missed you all.
Jack, I think BLS got it most right, what a great note to come back on, a well deserved bit of compensation for a brave man who stood against evil.
Congrats and thanks to you and to BJ, mate, if you never do a better thing you will still be a very, very good man.
and to top it off, you get the Blues home.
Just quietly, while you’re on a roll, can you have a crack at Middle East Peace.
cheers to all of you.
I might leave that to young Jared Kushner, mate. I just put in a half day’s work. Bit fatigued now. Might leave it to a bloke who can put in 20 hours a day.
20 hours? Sheesh. I think I did 10 today (with breaks) and I’m knackered. Thinking about scotch.
When I had my knee replaced I rediscovered the bliss of a nana nap. Indulge. The love seat in my office is a problem though.
We all might live to regret this bit of advice.
If you want to put an Emoji anywhere in Windows 10, hitting the Windows key and ; or Windows key and . key at the same time will bring up a bunch of Emojis ; 👀 ✔
Jesus H Christ, Mr Insider, this was the winning performance in the 2018 Eurovision, won by Israel. Lucky Bernard King wasn’t there with his Gong!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84LBjXaeKk4
G’day Jack,
Some of your regulars will be sick of me talking about Marcus Meechan (aka Count Dankula) and the Nazi Pug case. But this is a great little talk about the supposed dedication of governments to free speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmZmDNRDb2c
Even in the place where speech is protected most vigorously, a YouGov poll from last October found that 40 percent of Americans think government should prevent people from engaging in “hate speech.” Those 40% probably think Brandenburg v. Ohio is a football game.
What is it then?
You’ve googled it by now. It’s the SCOTUS precedent that says hate speech is explicitly covered by the First Amendment. Look at last year’s Matal v. Tam for a laugh. The Supremes can’t get any clearer.
Yeah, that Diana’s got a great voice!
Henry Blofeld says:
MAY 11, 2018 AT 2:38 PM,
Where will Turnbull and Scum Morrison get the money for their unfunded $140billion tax cuts, unfunded $80billion gift to the big end of town and the $160 billion interest payments on the debt they have loaded us with-no details of where the money is coming from. Oh I also forgot there is $200 billion worth of military hardware on time payment as well. How can Turnbull and Morrison look that far down the tunnel and say the money is there ‘because it is in the forward estimates’. Costello did that and left Rudd/Gillard/Abbott/Turnbull a $80billion (according to The Oz) structural deficit.
*
SOUTHS!!!!!
Bman, did you not notice in the budget tax as share of GDP continues to rise during the forward estimates. Also in the budget apparently the economic growth is going to jump by 1% of GDP in the next 6 months. Talk about a magic pudding. Oh did you see the latest data on the Big Business tax cuts in the US ? record share buybacks but a Real Wage Cut for wage earners. Google Kansas tax cuts for a look at what will happen.
Your choices next election is simple dear BASSMAN you have on the one hand Malcolm Trumble and on the other UnbelieverBILL. Cheers
You call that a choice Bald?
Hobson’s Bassy!
Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mums out there.
Glad to see you back Jack, hope your health is better for your medical treatment, sorely missed your columns & tweets.
Good to see a win for Mr Ryan, if we had more police as dedicated as he was, perhaps the crime rate would come down, or at least the conviction rates would go up. Doubt if it will heal his scars, but hopefully recent acknowledgements might help him sleep better at night and give him some peace of mind. What a guy.
Had to cringe when I read Derryn’s comment. What a dropkick.
George Megalogenis, Mr Insider, a very astute man and one we can listen too with a surety he does know what he’s talking about. Sadly Bill Shorten, headed for the Lodge, is not a man to be listened too imho, a complete wally, lots of mirth when his name is mentioned on The Insiders or anywhere.
In catching up with news from downtown Tokyo it would appear my mate little billy Shorten has benn telling some porkies regarding citizenship with another two in doubt this morning. A couple of marginals as well to add to Longman. He’ll then have to tell all those aspirational voters out in the burbs why 90k a year makes you rich. Interesting times and the Coalition are back in the race they just have to go hard at him and then call a snap poll just before Albo strikes.
PFFFFT. hillsong Morrison wont release budget costing because he says they are “too unreliable” your mob have blown it and the coalitions new partner the phony freaks will get them over the line in Longman.
I think the sitting members lack of clarity regarding what actually occurred will assist the LNP greatly thus ramping up the pressure on the bloke who told bare faced lies regarding the status of his members. The Gallagher decision was no different in actuality to the previous one last year but again he looked straight down the camera and lied.
The economy is improving, unemployment is falling so let’s just see what the next year brings shall we.
Ninety grand a year IS rich Razor, it only depends on aspiration and a whole lot of perspective.
That’s almost double what I earn but if I compare my lifestyle to far too many Australians who are homeless or frighteningly one pay away from living on the street, I know I’m rich in the only ways that matter. 🕊
Hear Hear Bella, Hear, Hear.
Rich is not having to worry about money. 90k pa is not rich in Australia. Besides, cash and assets are a better measure of wealth.
I don’t feel rich–I have a wife. 😉
That should make you richer Dwight…..emotionally richer that is 🙂
Thanks Penny. She does fill my heart.
Hear hear Trivalve, hear hear!
Wow, what I could do with ninety grand every year Trivalve. I’d consider myself to be rich.
One thing I’ve learned in this life is that ‘success’ should never be measured by how grand your home or what car you drive.
Every five seconds a child dies from hunger in the world yet in a wealthy materialistic society like ours, it’s considered that almost a hundred thousand dollars salary a year does not mean you’re rich. I’ll never understand that.
I agree with you Bella. If someone can’t manage on $90 grand a year, then there’s something wrong somewhere. I think people really should take a good hard look at how some people in Australia really do have to try and live on a third of $90 grand a year and still have an enjoyable life. There are people who have worked all their life and still have to go through hoop after hoop to be given an aged pension. As far as I can see, much as I am not that impressed with Bill Shorten, the Labor Party is trying to redress the inequality between the rich and the poor. All power to them I say and kudos to you Bella for caring so much.
Beats me how the LibNats keep saying what a great nation we have (primarily for them & their donors) yet they don’t give a rats about the majority of people who slog it out every working day for a pittance of their real worth to our society.
These folks do what the Fibs would call ‘menial’ work but the obvious difference between them & ignorant politicians is a couple of hundred grand a year, aprons, nametags, workboots & a soul.
Motormouth Morrison thinks we’re all so fundamentally stupid that we’ll accept that these lowly paid people should pay the same tax rate as someone earning $200,000!
I’ve just heard there’s a real possibility of Newstart being cut by $7 a week & if that happens expect theft crimes to shoot through the roof….literally.
So how do you manage Penny? What are the overseas freebies? The extras? What’s the base and what’s the add on’s? As a Doctor at a Uni you would be on considerably more than 90K. Plus extras! If not find another Uni…..
OK Razor, let’s put it this way, when we worked in the Middle East we earned well over $90,000 each and we did this for four years. It enabled us to fly business class and live well, bloody well for that matter. But we were in the Middle East which has to pay well or no-one would work there, it’s not exactly easy living in an Arab Muslim country but we enjoyed the experience. Having said that academics in Australia are not as well off as you seem to think, nor are teachers, nor are nurses etc. You would know more than I do about the police force. Education globally is experiencing low enrollments and the competition for students is frightening. Academics worldwide are taking payouts and early retirement. Universities are squeezing their faculty members to work more hours for less money, particularly the one I work for online. Still in the good years we managed to buy property and we’ve been lucky, not so the young people who can’t even to save a deposit for a house and might have to take out a loan for 100% of the sale price, try paying that off on $90,000 a year.
Which leads me to my view Penny, this type of situation develops into a perfect storm to make academics tow a certain line and only study populist causes so grant money can be more easily accessed.
We are getting belted badly at the moment regarding evidenced based research, even on the most basic stuff. Just an excuse to give jobs to a sector which is struggling. Some matters in life are obvious but they try to get me to shell out money for stuff on, what is a very tight budget.
I think police, teachers and nurses all get about the same money dependent on position. Teachers and nurses in isolated postings get a stack more money and better location arrangements when they leave.
And the uncertainty has been interesting. Tenure is no longer much protection. Two rounds of redundancies in two years. I don’t think I’ll survive here after 2020. Have to make sure my wife has a good job!
Bella, we aren’t defining ‘success’ here, we are defining the word ‘rich’, as it applies to material and monetary wealth. If you choose to ignore the generally accepted definition of rich, well, I can’t help that. The oracle (viz. the OED) says: “Having a great deal of money or assets; wealthy.” That ain’t 90k. Let’s now imagine that you owe 500k for whatever reason (mortgage, insurance, gambling debt) or that you have nine children to feed and clothe. Or maybe you are renting in Sydney because 90k won’t let you save for a house deposit. I could go on. You may have none of those impediments, own your own home and keep much of that 90k (after tax) as disposable income and I would say that you were ‘comfortable’. If you are rich on the other hand, you could fly off to London tomorrow, biz class, to join the rabid throng outside the royal wedding, without thinking twice about it, and stay at Claridges. That’s rich. That’s not 90k. Success is irrelevant to that.
TV you have been in Can berra too long man.
I went to Sydney last week.
Poor you! I’d take Canberra any day.
woohoo.
Funny that TV, I nipped to Canberra for the Cartier exhibition.
Rather disappointed that there were no freebies.
Shoulda brought the cat…
Stay at Claridges? You’d have to be very very rich, it’s been booked out for months. We booked as soon as we noticed the twinkle in the girl’s eye.
I know a reasonable B&B near Gatwick but there’s a bit of a faint sewage smell in the dining room.
If you owe, for whatever reason, $500K, then it’d be safe to say you would be living beyond your means.
Downsizing is a ‘thing’ people do when they finally realise that fulfillment doesn’t come via a bank balance.
I’m not discussing anything here beyond the concept of being rich. The 500k is a cherry pick but people have mortgages like that these days. Who was it that said ‘Eat the rich’? They didn’t say ‘Eat the middle-class well-off’, and not just because it doesn’t roll off the tongue nicely.
PJ O’Rourke
My favourite RWNJ
Spot on TV. Let them keep bowling those slow lobs and you keep smacking them over the boundary!!!!!
80% of Australian earn less than the average wage of $84K. I know we have had this discussion previously but the latest data released about a week ago shows the Median income for a single person is $54K per year. so $90K is not doing it tough. As always personal decisions on expenditure are the issue.
Of course that’s the issue mate but consumerism kills savings & envy drives ambition. 💰😨
Bella, close, envy drives arseholes to the support the coalition. Pardon my language. But those who do very well and still want more at the expense of Opportunities for those struggling keeps me Dismayed.
No. Those who want better for their children and aspire for better vote for the coalition. Those who are locked into an imaginary class struggle that ended a number of decades ago vote Labor. Progressive my arse.
Cough cough
The conservative have always run the class war. You are blinded by your outdated divisive ideology. No surprises.
Bonjour Razor!
Hope all well back in Oz. It has been rather nice being sheltered from the crap that is Australian politics these days.
I’ll say this for the French – their men are damn charming! No matter what age a woman may be. Refreshing. Mind you, Macron is setting a splendid example! Good on him.
Also charming is life in a small French village – I could live here in a heartbeat.
As for Shorten – would anyone believe anything this man says?
So good to be back with you,Jack!
Cheers all
Boa
Macron was here while you were away Boa. He was delicious.
There’s a very good little French Restaurant in Tea Gardens, Tillermans..
It is surprising good and the owner is mad about French cuisine and happens to be French – surprise surprise.
Anyhow, he has, of all things, a PhD in the theory of language translation.
The word that Macron used can have two meanings – delicious or delightful.
The media showed their lack of translation talent by opting for delicious when he described Mrs Turnbull.
Thought as much. But they’ll always take the more controversial route, won’t they?
I think Macron needs his eyes checked either that or he likes the ageing drag queen look.
Lovely comment Dismayed. One of your misogynistic best. Great to see nothing has changed after the break.
Well you’d go down like a lead balloon in France, wouldn’t you?
He seems to have some clout around the traps these days, Triv. Was just given some award or other in Germany
He’s still taking French rail head on and not giving in to union demands. Bit inconvenient for French commuters with strikes 2 days in every 5 – but they seem to take it in their stride and work around it. I think he will win this one. And so he should. Job guaranteed for life and retirement at 52 is a bit rich. Dates back to the times when they were shovelling coal on the trains.
But by jingo, I’ve had some funny experiences with French bureaucracy in my time here!
He is certainly delicious/delightful – whatever, Triv. Outshines Justin imo!
Actually in Japan at the moment Boa and loving it. Cannot believe how cheap most food and drink is here. People are so polite and helpful as well.
Enjoy France,
Ariagatou!
Enjoy your holiday Razor, I’m told Japan is famous for it’s magnificent gardens.🌿
I just wish the citizens were aware of their ugly involvement in the bloody carnage happening under their watch in Taiji, never mind the illegal slaughter of whales & their calves in the SO.
Sadly the Fibs here still remain firmly on their knees to that country like all cowards do.
Gardens are beautiful Bella.
Both sides in Australia ignore the ugly parts Bella. It’s hard to relate one with the other. Very polite generous people. We aren’t in the tourist traps either but with my oldest son and his lady who work for a major Japanese company.
Your honesty and good heart keeps me on this blog sometimes. We disagree on most things but good people can do that and still respect.
Yes mate we do seem to disagree on most things but considering JTI’s health battles, I can’t see that it’s necessary for him to wade through insults. Besides, I’ve been on the receiving end of enough vitriol & threats in my work with SS to know how ugly it can get but I’m so much tougher than I seem.
My message is that Japan’s atrocities on the oceans are illegal thanks to Labor taking them to the Hague, so they must be held to account for their immoral actions. 🐬
I never doubted there was a certain amount of steel there Bella!
Whilst I know what you are referring to old mate I wouldn’t be throwing the ‘my work with the SS’ around too much! That black uniform and cap with skull thing on wouldn’t suit………
Kanichiwa Razor! Enjoy
Aren’t all frog………sorry, French men short arses?
Quite a few of our very good French male friends ( not short arses Tracy) whilst charming, disagree with whoever is in Government at the time, I can see why the Revolution started , they just don’t like anyone in authority and seem to truly believe in the equality for all concept. That’s why the unions will always win in France……inconvenient the strikes may be, but it just woukdn’ be France without them….
That’s me Penny to a T. Equality, though, is in the eye of the beholder. If everyone has a crack then all is good. Why feed good money after bad though?
Nope. French men are great! Doesn’t matter what size, shape or age. Always extremely polite. Women too.
I’ve been playing petanque with the old fellas from the village in the afternoons. And when I pitch up they will come over and shake my hand with a “bonjour”. Not sure how well one has to know them before one gets the three-kiss routine!
But that’s French etiquette. Always a cheery ‘bonjour Madame ” when one enters a shop. I love France!
The three kiss routine should always be air kisses, unless you know them VERY well. France is lovely I agree, but if I was going to live in any European country it would be Italy….if we are talking about good looking and charming men. Of course no one can beat our Australian men when it comes down to good looks and charm…🙂
Dr Penny, We are all blushing.
As you all should Dismayed. I just love ( and I’m deadly serious here) coming home to Australia and chatting to Australian men (and women if course) There is such a genuine kindness and friendliness that we encounter, particularly in the country towns. We’re in Coober Pedy at the moment and they’ve gone all posh on us with a new IGA. You should see the imported cheeses! Boa if you want charm and good looking blokes Coober Pedy could be just the place for you when you get back
Rhetorical statement of mine, Penny. Not meant to be taken literally. I live in France as a local for 6 weeks every year. Speak their language. And understand their culture to some extent. Unless of course you were giving the bloggers a lesson on French etiquette when it comes to greeting.
I think the fact that I am an Australian makes them a tad reticent to go full Monty – a polite and sincere handshake is fine – and they are dear old fellas from another era down at the petanque game. Really sweet.
Good news for both Denis and you Jack. I hope he has many more years to enjoy the coin. Also hope you are back to match fitness as soon as possible. That yard of yours must look a mess!