Idiots
CNN is reporting that as Ike hit Galveston Texas people who ignored warnings to leave or face death started calling 911 begging to be rescued - I hope they recorded names and numbers so they can identify the phenomenally stupid among them.
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Dude… that’s uncommonly cold of you.
RA - Why? Why should first responders have to risk their own lives to save those too stupid to evacuate? From what I’ve seen so far, only one person remained in the neighborhood south of Galveston and they found him this morning, drunk but alive. Why did they have to risk THEIR life & limb for him?
Seriously, they should consider enacting a law like the one we have for skiers skiing outside the trails - sure, we’ll rescue you. Then we’ll bill you.
Cold? No, it’s called common sense.
If you live at sea level, behind a 15 foot wall, and there’s a 25 foot wave headed in your direction, and you have been warned about the wave, and you have been told to leave, and you have time to leave, and you choose not to leave, you are an idiot.
Not only are you an idiot but you are the worst kind of idiot - a self centered and selfish idiot who thinks that someone should try and rescue them and their family from their stupidity… that sort of person bears watching.
– and if I had been working 911 last night I’d probably be unemployed today for telling them exactly that when they called begging for help.
Quite frankly I think the state should look into removing children from homes, that sort of reckless endangerment of the innocent and vulnerable under their care and control should be considered criminal.
They should charge the people, whatever the cost of the rescue. I think they’ve done this before, with people who have gone to “out of bounds” areas of national parks, ignored warnings, they rescue them, but they get the bill. Why should rescuers but themselves in harm’s way, to save someone who doesn’t heed clear warnings? You were told to get out, so if you stay, you should pay for your sheer stupidity.
what if they couldn’t leave? What if there are medical or mobility issues? What if there’s no place for them to go? What if theyre just too scared to leave? There’s tons of reasons they didn’t go some good, some bad. Doesn’t mean they don’t deserve help.
Kind of like saying “Fuck you fat guy, drive yourself to the hospital if you’re having a heart attack.”
I do volunteer search and rescue. Stupid people need help sometimes too. But only if your own life isn’t in danger.
nasty
If any of the people fall into those categories, then that’s a different story.
If there were compelling reasons why they absolutely couldn’t leave then we’re talking something completely different aren’t we.
In some cases there were medical issues, the state looked after those - what mobility issues are you asking about? The state said that if people needed assistance to leave it would be given to them.
There were shelters provided complete with food, water, and medical.
Huh?
The state looked after the good reasons, the people with bad reasons should be prepared to look after themselves and not go whining to the state to bail them out of their stupid decision when the wind started blowing, the water started rising, and their stupidity was made manifestly apparent to them.
I saw one couple interviewed about why they didn’t leave and they said they were worried about their “stuff” - and that is the most common answer the media is reporting given, and IMO “worried about stuff don’t cut it.
The state and media tried to warn them, and they ignored it. You don’t risk the lives of rescue crew to save those who don’t help themselves. That’s God’s business (although I have heard that God helps those who help themselves, too).
I agree with Steve, they really should have to pay for the rescue BUT that still doesn’t rectify it. They are endangering those that have to protect them, taking them away from more important tasks, using up scarce resources (helicopters, boats, heavy lifters etc.) and all this because …THEY IGNORED AMPLE WARNINGS AND ORDERS TO EVACUATE!
Frankly, should rescuers deem such a rescue too risky, they should have the right to refuse to evacuate them.
what if they couldn’t leave? What if there are medical or mobility issues? What if there’s no place for them to go? What if theyre just too scared to leave? There’s tons of reasons they didn’t go some good, some bad. Doesn’t mean they don’t deserve help.
Funny … I remember a great deal of bloggers on the Left saying much the same thing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It seems to me the average rightwing blogger was too busy shrieking about personal responsibility to see things from your perspective, Nasty.
My, my — how things have changed.
Tens of thousands of idiots no less…. if they wanted to ride it out then they should be willing to ride out the aftermath as well - instead of expecting someone to drop everything else they have on their plate and rush in to rescue them from their willful stupidity.
My,how WASPish of you SL.
You know if I was in the same circumstance I would probably be one of those that refused to go.After all if everything you have in the world,particularly in this world where nobody gives a damn about the next guy,is under threat it’s hard to just get up and leave and hope for the best.After all who the fuck is going to help you when you have nothing.
SO I guess that makes me an idiot,so be it
WASP’ish?
Picture stageleft standing in front of a very dangerous situation, lets call it a hurricane.
In his right hand there is his stuff.
In his left hand there is his life and his family,
stageleft can only reasonably protect one of them.
Decision: stageleft drops everything in his right hand, uses it to hold tightly to everything in his left hand, and protects them first — if he comes back and anything he dropped is still around he’ll pick it up.
That’s not WASP’ish, that’s common sense.
Everyone has to make personal choices and decisions - and then be responsible for the consequences of those decision dirk, if in that situation you chose to ignore the danger in favour of your stuff why would you expect others to put themselves in harms way to bail you out of the mess?
I dunno SL.
While I think I agree with you in principle, I do remember how I felt about the poor folks in N’awleans during Katrina.
While admittedly there was much more attention paid to Ike prior to it making landfall, and many more (and louder, and persistent) warnings to evacuate, it don’t sit well with me.
I know there were shelters involved and everything. And I know it’s their own damn faults if they are able to leave, and I think if rescued they SHOULD be billed for willful stupidity.
However, I’d go and rescue them if I was called upon. I might grimace and call them terrible names on the entire chopper ride back to safety, but I would go anyways.
And yes, I think those who had children with them obviously aren’t capable of parenting in any normal sense of the word.
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Throbbin:
I hear you, BUT, surprisingly, lessons appear to have been learned by the various gov’t agencies involved.
EG: Prior to Katrina, the mayor of NO didn’t provide any kind of transportation for those without, and the little that WAS provided excluded pets, causing many to refuse to abandon them (owning multiple pets, I get that).
This time, pets were welcome (both Gustav and Ike).
Also, remember the drowned, parked school busses from Katrina? This time, the Mayor had a plan and, when the contractor didn’t come through, actually had a backup supplier. People who wanted to leave could and did, complete with pets.
Also, remember the horrendous traffic jams (that caused, if I recall, a few deaths alone) prior to Rita? Lessons learned: Galveston and other low-lying counties evacuated FIRST, then ONLY low-lying neighborhoods (from what it sounds, only about 20%) of Houston evacuated, with the others hunkering down. Solved, at least significantly, the traffic issue.
So no. I’m w/SL on this. Leave the goofs until it’s safe to rescue them, and then charge them for the cost of rescue.