Tim Blair

Hey Tim, reckon we can convince Jake to stand for parliament? I would vote for the bugger in a heartbeat. We need blokes like him in there.

Nostalgia is just memory without the bad bits.

Jake Ryan's comment piece should be required reading for all those whining lefty moonbats who shriek that the Bali bombings were all the fault of the victims, merely for being there.

Powerful stuff, and incredibly good common sense from this young man.

What an excellent piece by Mr. Ryan!! Touching.

What's the chance that he'll write a book? Or get in touch with someone to film a documentary?

I don't mean to be unkind or uncaring to those who lost loved ones, but we have short memories and *need* something to help remind us of the horror of Bali.

It would be wonderful if he could get together with some others and create a book or documentary. Something to pull out on each anniversary and remember those who lost their lives and the cowards that killed them.

People who believe we can just pretend a war has not been declared on us are fooling themselves. Bali and 9/11 are proof the war is on. If we stick our heads in the sand and do nothing, we're still going to be attacked. Better to have our armies fight them than just wait until we are attacked again. (I believe we will be.)

It also makes me sick to my stomach to realize there are people who believe their own government stood by and allowed it to happen, or caused it.

Why do our governments always seem to get blamed by certain people? If the government isn't being blamed for 'provoking' it, it's blamed for knowing about it or causing it. What is it with some of these people? Look at the other guy's government! Think it's better than your own? They must.

If I seriously believed my government allowed, or caused, a bunch of citizens to be massacred, I would no longer live under that government. Good for Mr. Ryan for refusing to believe such nonsense and having the balls to say so publicly.

Its been said before, but Amrozi and co. won't be smiling for very long.

The former chief-of-staff of a two-time loser complains that everyone else is fixated on losing?

Tim,
Do you still stay in touch with Jake? How is he feeling these days?

He phoned from Bali today, gaz. He's doing great -- the Gold Coast Bulletin is running a diary from him this week, and he's caught up with some of the Brits he met in Bali a year ago, and their families. And besides the scarring, physically he's almost completely repaired.

He was on his way to an interview with the Times of London, I think. I'll check their site tomorrow.

But the truth is that they loved him even more for his defeat in 1975.

It reminds me of the article How I became an unconscious fascist, which had

The Left blessed the Jews as the victim "par excellence," always a great partner in the struggle for the rights of the weak against the wicked. In return ... Jews ... gave the Left moral support and invited it to cry with them at Holocaust memorials.

just to balance the selective quote from Costello's article, he also says 'Glover tears into the Howard Government and the political Right in Australia for their contempt for the truth, which Orwell regarded as the essential foundation of all life and politics. He has the time of his life sinking the boot into the feral Right commentariat that bays uncritically the virtues of Howardism' Could be Bushism too.

That Jake Ryan is an impressive young man - clear-sighted, wise and mature as well as young and active. His family must be very proud of him. I am proud of him just as a fellow Australian.

A very powerful piece of writing, too. Easily among the best short article of so many that I have read about Bali. If the young fellow probably didn't have better things to do with his life, he would have a worthwhile career in that alone.

Thanks Tim, I'm glad he's feeling better. Obviously if you've never been through something like that you'll never know how it feels but he's got his whole life ahead of him, I'm glad he's not going to let these pricks ruin it.