Monday, April 05, 2010

When History Threatens To Sink Into The Mud

What do you do with famous old US Navy vessels that are now in civilian hands and have been neglected for decades, to the point that it's very possible that they could sink if not rescued?

11 comments:

TOTWTYTR said...

I would rather see my tax dollars going to preserving historic ships like this than "entitlements" for welfare bums.

Not that it will happen.

wally said...

Life is so much simpler when you can dump everyone into categories like "welfare bums" instead of seeing them as real people.

Bob said...

@wally: TOTWTYTR is an EMT, Walt. He sees the impoverished, as well as every other social class, on a daily basis. You might check out his blog, as well as A Day In The Life of An Ambulance Driver, before passing judgment.

wally said...

I have, Bob. No question, EMTs perform a valuable service. So how exactly does that mitigate classifying whole groups of people as "welfare bums"?

I know some EMTs too. They're nice people. But they don't seem to have a greater purchase on wisdom than the rest of us.

Bob said...

@wally: seems to me that just the other day you were grouping Georgians as mentally deficient, Walt.

wally said...

Jeez, I even added a smiley face to that remark to make sure you knew I was teasing! I know how sensitive you are to the way Southerners are depicted.

wally said...

Anyway, as I have said many times, digging up examples of other people committing the same transgression does not make it okay.

Bob said...

@wally: much appreciated, and I'm not taking offense, just pointing out an inconsistency. For what it's worth, TOTWTYTR probably wasn't condemning all welfare recipients, just the ones who game and abuse the system.

wally said...

That's a pretty big loophole, Bob. I know conservatives who believe anyone who uses the system is abusing it, the system being illegitimate to begin with.

Bob said...

@wally: true enough, but we're talking specifically about TOTWTYTR here, since it was his comment that caused you to join the discussion. Unless he chooses to reply again, I'll stand by my interpretation of his comment, that he's not condemning all welfare users as bums.

For me, although I link UK abuses at the National Health Service mercilessly, you might have noticed that I haven't outright condemned the idea of an American equivalent; this is in line with what I told you when we met in Norfolk: that I support the idea of universal coverage. Indeed, since my mother's care in a nursing home here in Charlotte is funded by Medicare and Medicaid, I'd be a supreme hypocrite to condemn it.

wally said...

I think this has gone as far as it can without hearing from TOTWTYTR .