Duncan's grievous crime was he asked a question. Obviously a serious offence in these enlightened days of free speech. The rabid right must bemoan the fact the good old days are no longer with us. A time when the authorities could have simply dragged old Duncan down to the town square and placed him in the public stocks, where the good citizenry of the rabid right could have pelted Duncan with rotten fruit. But things have changed, and now they have to come onto an internet forum and metaphorically give Duncan a public humiliation.

Good Morning,

I'm now back home. The procedure appears to have gone
well and I'll be told the results at my
specialist appointment tomorrow afternoon. I'm assuming
that if there were serious problems they would not have
allowed me to go home from the hospital. It's good to be
home once again. Thank You for your well wishes.

As for Duncan Storrar?
I find all of your comments interesting. And I'm glad that
I started this discussion. That's one of the many things
that I love about OLO - the wide variety of views.

The only thing that I find disturbing is when people get
nasty. That should not happen. It is worthwhile
to make a note and re-think things from another's perspective.
Except, I guess unless we consider those opinions not worthy
of consideration, then it would be best if we
simply moved on. Labelling people is not a worthwhile way to discuss
things. It does not produce anything productive.

However Thanks for all of your contributions.
There's much food for thought.

Dear ttbn - So you think I sound "sanctimonious?"
You are entitled to you opinion. Although, you
must realise that you aren't obligated to read my posts.

Have a nice day everyone.
All the best.

Hi Paul,

You're right: Duncan asked a question. And, rephrased, that was: if I don't pay any tax, why don't I get a tax cut ? I would have thought that the answer was pretty straightforward: how much tax cut would you like on nothing paid ?

What do you reckon, Paul ? Personally, I think he is entitled to at least 47 % off what he paid. Would you be more generous ?

So how much tax should he pay - and how much of a tax cut should he get - on $ 60,000 ?

Cheers,

Joe

Hi there FOXY...

I'm so pleased to hear your procedure went well, and they permitted you to return home. And as you say if they found anything that raised any great concern they would have admitted you as an inpatient and kept you there. While it will be necessary to see your specialist again soon, it doesn't mean he'll greet you with advice, that'll be full of doom and gloom.

See FOXY I told you all will be well! You can always trust an ol' copper with sage advice - perhaps not quite 'sage' advice, more like 'seat of your pants' type advice! Seriously I'm absolutely delighted to hear you're OK, notwithstanding the quality of my advice?

Dear O Sung Wu,

Bless your heart!

I am also so relieved that things went well.

Anyway, I'll be seeing my surgeon tomorrow
afternoon and hopefully the end result will
be taken care of, with medication. I'm hoping
I won't need a by-pass. Then, on the 3rd June
I'll be seeing my Orthopaedic Surgeon (re-my
right leg and left shoulder) and hopefully
things are progressing well in that department
as well. I feel like I've been through the wars
at times.

But heck, there was a 90-ish old lady in the bed
next to mine in hospital on Monday, she was being
operated on Tuesday, and she was
amazing and inspired me greatly.

Again - Thanks for all your support and cheering
me up. May all the good-will that you show to
others come back to you many times over.

Take care.

Here's an interesting article that I've come across
on the web written by John Birmingham, May 17th 2016
in the "Brisbane Times". It's worth a read:

" Duncan Storrar's 'critics' did not refute his main point
that a rise in the tax-free threshold can change the daily
life of a poor person. Probably because it's irrefutable.
Nor did they take up O'Dwyer's bungled defence of a tax cut
for the rich over the poor ..."

Birmingham states that:

"Nope. They just pulled on the jackboots and kicked 47 flavours
of shyte out of an impoverished, uneducated man who'd done
nothing more than ask a simple, surprisingly difficult question.
The savagery of the media assault on Duncan Storrar, almost
entirely the work of the Murdoch press, was sickening to behold.
It was, to quote from Jennifer Wilson, a "depraved abuse of power."

Birmingham tells us that "They turned his family against him. They
blew up his criminal record. They called him a thug. An egregious
hypocrisy coming from these people. Interestingly however, as
terrible as it must have been for anyone in that family, the
destruction of Duncan Storrar did not go exactly to plan."

"Even as Storrar was defamed, normal people, which is to say not
billionaire media barons or lickspittles in the employ of billionaire
media barons, continued to offer support and donate to the "Go Fund Me"
campaign on his behalf."

It does bear repeating that Storrar never once asked for the money
or the attention. People just started throwing tens of thousands
of dollars at him via the internet because they were either sympathetic
or outraged or both.

Birmingham writes "Storrar had dared to speak a simple truth - not
even a particularly radical one. A couple of bucks means a helluva
lot more to somebody without a buck to their name. For this he had to
be destroyed and not simply refuted."

cont'd ...