RRC Archives

tbwilsonky wrote:Still. In a crisis, given a finite amount of resources and time, you must decide is it 'better' to save one family's life or another's financial well being. Include the potential contingencies such as business insurance, which we can both agree functions very differently than life insurance (as in you can't get your life back), and I don;t think the choice is very hard.

i know what you're saying but there are going to be plenty of lives that will be saved by putting an end to the looting. ending the chaos and fighting will help restore order and make it that much more possible to save lives. i recently heard someone that was looking at possibly being sent down there to help and he was scared to death to head down because of all the craziness.

all i'm saying is that it's not like the relief doesn't care about the people. they might just go about doing their part in a different way. and what may look like a focus on the material aspects of the crisis may, in fact, be directed at saving as many lives as possible.

Chaos and fighting I get, but how does stopping looting equate to saving lives? Looting, while chaotic, isn't necessarily dangerous, right?

If it's a choice between indirect help and direct help, and you're on a roof running out of food, which one sounds more useful to you.

you're missing the point: chances are they can't help the people directly but can help them indirectly at first.. then directly.

and looting is dangerous. all you need is two people that want one thing. especially if it's water or food and they both have families. when people realize that things stop being "free" when order is restored, they're going to try to stop it from being restored.

if it were as simple as picking everyone up and helping them, they would.

read this, it helps explain why helping the victims "directly" isn't always possible.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.impact/

Speaking of whining, Flex told me over the weekend that he saw a woman on the news questioning the cause of the hurricane: "How could this happen to the greatest country in the world?!" I guess she didn't realize that natural disasters do not discriminate very much on political or wealthy power.

I agree with Paul, the looters are working in packs, in some places they have been
armed heavily with assault rifles and have actually attacked a police sub-station.
Anything that takes away from the rescue of the poor and down trodden needs to be addressed now, if let alone to loot, while we rescue, how many more problems
can/will occur if we let random lawlessness continue for any amount of time or in any form. I would rather spend the money on actual rescue measures than police
measures, in any war/disaster/emergency the first thing you do is send in people
trained and skilled in maintaining order so the rescurers can do they're job unaffected. I have personally helped out at our local Reserve unit packing trucks, and they're worried about being fired on when they enter the city......

in some places they have been
armed heavily with assault rifles and have actually attacked a police sub-station.

Does this sound strange coming from a person named gunslnga?

Does this sound strange coming from a person named gunslnga?

I'm a Gulf War Veteran(90-91)and an Infantry soldier. While in the Army, I excelled with weapons, fired expert with all the weapons we had, hence Gunslnga.
Given to me bye my troops, as all soldiers eventually get one(nickname). Maybe if I changed my nickname to flower child or lotus blossum I would attract less attention, Ha! Ha! Anyway, not that anyone really cares but thats my 2 cents.

As usual, the Onion sums things up nicely:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40305

Bush Urges Victims To Gnaw On Bootstraps For Sustenance

WASHINGTON, DC—In an emergency White House address Sunday, President Bush urged all people dying from several days without food and water in New Orleans to "tap into the American entrepreneurial spirit" and gnaw on their own bootstraps for sustenance. "Government handouts are not the answer," Bush said. "I believe in smaller government, which is why I have drastically cut welfare and levee upkeep. I encourage you poor folks to fill yourself up on your own bootstraps. Buckle down, and tear at them like a starving animal." Responding to reports that many Katrina survivors have lost everything in the disaster, Bush said, "Only when you work hard and chew desperately on your own footwear can you live the American dream."

welfare isn't the answer...that's racism to assume poor black people need your handouts.

it's racist to assume that the poor are black (aww snap!)