Comments on: Not Textbook Eminent Domain

By: Brett Bellmore

Brett Bellmore — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:45:24 +0000

“Perhaps because we value property rights more than extraordinary heroism which prevents a second terrorist attack on Washington, D.C.?)”

I find it hard to figure out how property rights and respect for heroism are mutually exclusive. It’s not like the heroes consoled themselves on the way down with the thought that somebody would have a couple thousand acres forcibly taken away from them.

By: volunteer your back yard

volunteer your back yard — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:01:06 +0000

I’d have thought your years of legal training would have helped you see through trite emotional pleas, but I’d have been wrong.

By: krs

krs — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:52:01 +0000

I don’t understand your sympathy for the Flight 93 families’ argument on this particular issue.

Everyone’s sorry for the families’ loss and admires the courage of the passengers. There’s been a movie made, books written,

countless expressions of gratitude, sorrow and admiration from public figures, and the federal government has already allocated out money for a memorial.

This is apparently not enough. The families want the government to forcibly take the land of someone who’s done nothing wrong so that they can have a memorial ready in time for a party in 2011. It’s more than a little sickening, but apparently few people are above turning sympathy and victimhood into political leverage.

As for “urgent,” the comparison is apples and oranges. Yes, the situation was quite “urgent” when the passengers of Flight 93 realized that their plane was going to be used as a massive suicide bomb in Washington DC within the next 30 minutes or so if they didn’t do something about it. Here, what happens if the memorial isn’t ready by 2010…?

The families will have to grieve and commemorate without a finished memorial and they’ll just have to make do with the apparently insufficient deluge of gratitude that they’re currently stuck with.

If we’re going to throw the word “urgent” around, I’ll note that while the economy is collapsing around us, hundreds of thousands of people are being laid off every month, and Obama is telling everyone that they’ll have to sacrifice over the next few years, these families are complaining that the government has the temerity to hesitate to seize another person’s land in time for a party in 2011.

By: A.W.

A.W. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:30:07 +0000

I don’t know, are they still talking about a “crescent of embrace” memorial?

If so, then i say let’s never build the stupid thing. And maybe that is much of what this problem is about. We might as well waive a white flag of surrender there, it would be only slightly less obnoxious.

By: Grabby McGraberson

Grabby McGraberson — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:48:10 +0000

Isn’t part of the problem here that the government wants to acquire 1700 *ACRES* for a memorial in the middle of nowhere? That’s an irrational amount of land, particularly for something that should be located somewhere more accessible in the first place.

Also, I’m not sure we really can argue about whether building this memorial by 2011 is “urgent.” If it is, the word has lost all meaning.