Harvey, come on up!

Hotair is making a big fuss about something that was said on TMZ:

Former “Bachelor” bachelor Andy Baldwin just got back from the island of Palau in the South Pacific — not on vacation, on a mission with the Navy. Now let’s talk about why we th…

Truthfully, we probably should be doing more to find those who we know are missing. We owe it to them.

You are welcome to your opinion, as Ed is to his.

It just so happens that Ed’s opinion matters more than yours; he’s the master of this particular section of the universe.

If you want to change that, feel free to go make your own blog, and talk on it about how Ed’s blog is stupid for talking about things that interest everyone but you.

I’m sure you’ll get a lot of readers.

As for TMZ, they failed the moment they decided to go outside of their area of expertise.

Seixon on March 22, 2008 at 10:28 AM

With all due respect … do you honestly not understand, or are you pretending to not understand – in order to save face?

I suspect the latter. I think you’re embarrassed, and rather than simply apologize and admit the obvious, you’d prefer to wallow in shallow sarcasm.

Which more or less proves the point.

And no, my misguided friend, it is nothing like the chickenhawk argument; but this too, you can’t understand.

You are arguing a cost-benefit analysis. Yet you cannot understand the benefit.

You should at least understand the logic.

Fortunately, those to whom the logic actually applies – understand it fully. Frankly, you don’t count or matter in this one. Not a bit.

I do.

No Man (or Woman) Left Behind.

And If you feel that TMZ is a joke, why ask thousands of readers to visit the site? This is America; we are allowed to have our own opinions.

They understand that America doesn’t consider them a waste product to be forgotten when inconvenient or financially burdensome.

Unfortunately, Americans who read TMZ probably do.

Seixon on March 22, 2008 at 10:28 AM

This argument is akin to the “for the cost of one missile” fallacy. Yes, you could make an argument (that I would fervently disagree with) that more money should be spent on whatever we’re doing today, but that presupposes a) that this materially hinders funding for Iraq, b) that it has no bearing on the current military, and c) that there aren’t many other programs, much more wasteful and orders of magnitude more expensive, that we could dismantle first.

Seixon on March 22, 2008 at 10:28 AM

Honorable people can disagree honorably. But I think the military is large enough that this sort of mission is not going to have a deleterious effect on the over all force of strength.

When and where did you serve in uniform?
Professor Blather on March 21, 2008 at 8:37 PM

Ah, so now we’re making the chickenhawk argument again? Nice.

I laughed out loud that you mention my brothers-in-arms like they’d be opposed to this mission. Did you even think about it for a moment?

Of course they wouldn’t be opposed to it, but I’m sure they’d appreciate more help in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Think. Every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine in Iraq or Afghanistan hears about this unit and its mission .. . and feels both proud and relieved.

Really? I seriously doubt that. But it makes a great argument!

If you truly don’t understand, I invite you to visit any active duty unit – or any child or widow of a soldier lost in a past war – and share your views. You might actually learn something.

See, the thing here is that you seem to think I think that sort of mission is a complete waste – which is not what I said. I said that, at this point in time, it doesn’t seem like the best use of our resources.

How about using our resources where they’re needed, in Iraq and Afghanistan, so we can prevent more widows from being produced? How about using our resources to win the war and honor all those who gave their life to fight it?

It’s like conducting a burial ceremony right in the middle of a fight. Sure, you should honor the fallen, but exactly right at that time when you’re in the middle of a fight?

moxie_neanderthal on March 22, 2008 at 4:13 AM

If I wasn’t IP banned on TMZ for pointing out in their comments section a story they plagiarized a while back, I would link to your comment there 500 times until they get it into their thick skulls.
Very well said.

Debbie Schlussel

I’ve never seen the Bachelor but I think you’re probably just wrong on this one and should give the guy a break.

The guy is an MD assigned to the Navy out of Pearl Harbor Hawaii. While I was not a Navy guy, it is my understanding that as a Navy doc out of Hawaii he’s probably not slotted to rotate through any of the theaters you’ve mentioned. I think these folks stick to the Pacific theater either at Pearl Harbor or perhaps cruise as part of a medical support team through their area of operation. As such, I think Baldwin probably rotates between being in port and on a boat.

Lighten up. The guy is a stud and this is like a Navy recruitment commercial. We need to have more great military guys as role models in the public sphere, not less. Stupid show, great role model.

Andy Baldwin, is perhaps the most accomplished contestant ever to be featured on The Bachelor.

Baldwin is a graduate of Manheim Township High School in Lancaster, PA where he was valedictorian of his senior class and a competitive swimmer who made All-American. He was named ESPN’s National Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1995.

The Navy offered Andy a full ROTC scholarship, which he took and went to Duke University, where he was a varsity letter winner on the men’s swim team and began training for marathons, all while taking a pre-med course load and earning a degree in biology, with a concentration in genetics.

After graduating Duke with honors, he enrolled in the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine and was a surgical intern at Naval Hospital San Diego, where he graduated in 2003.

Baldwin’s current posting is as an undersea medical officer for a special operations dive unit with the Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He has also recently been the recipient of several humanitarian awards for his work in Laos last summer where he treated over 600 Laotians in remote mountain villages as part of a humanitarian mission.

If the rest of his unit was deployed overseas, and he got some exception to deploy, then I would have to agree with you, it is BS exception to be on a TV show.

However if his unit is stateside and his unit is not scheduled to deploy (maybe his ship is undergoing a refit), then give him leave. F15Mech

Totally agree. As long as he did not avoid deployment, no big deal. The military is a huge organization and it probably helps morale to see or hear about some guy on a game show.

It is just and noble to honor those service members and their sacrifices with remain repatriation searches.

For others to suggest that $52 million is too much to spend, I reply by saying it is far too little. To put this number into perspective, the estimated GDP of the US is somewhere around $13.8 trillion.

Those who we’ve lost and their families, have paid the ultimate cost. Is it really asking too much to honor their lives and service by not forgetting? Is it asking too much of our society that we not dismiss their sacrifice as ancient history and therefore unworthy of our vigilance or honoring that pledge that we have made to one another?

We owe it to our service members and to our society to bear such a modest burden and to honor those brave men and women and our pledge by not forgetting and remaining vigilant.

TMZ represents the antithesis of self sacrifice, honor and humility. It should be obvious to most reasonable people that they are way out of their depth in this area and need to return to the shallow end of the pool.

Richard Naputi
Jesse Castro
Mark Connelly

You are not forgotten. RIP

Perhaps the staff at TMZ should concern itself with its usual oeuvre of celebrity crotch shots and the latest rumors of who slept with whom in Hollywood.

I’m not sure TMZ showed Britney’s explicit crotch on their website, maybe on TV, I’m not sure.

But I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

At least I can eat something for desert.

“Until they all come home”

Stop. Think. Every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine in Iraq or Afghanistan hears about this unit and its mission .. . and feels both proud and relieved.

Every service member knows that the United States will never forget them. That’s what this program does. It’s hard enough to leave our families – Imagine how much harder it would be if we thought that our nation didn’t care enough to bring us home after we fall.

Thanks Professor

Wrong. That’s not the issue. Plenty of soldiers had their leaves canceled to the point where their tours in Iraq were twice as long and they didn’t see their families. If things are that dire for them, it is completely absurd that a soldier got a leave to see his . . . 25 concubines on “The Bachelor.” This is just like the soldiers who had their leaves canceled and they were sent to Iraq, yet their unit-mate was given leave to be on “American Idol.” Priorities, priorities.

Debbie Schlussel on March 21, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Debbie the key thing you said was “unit-mate.”

If the rest of his unit was deployed overseas, and he got some exception to deploy, then I would have to agree with you, it is BS exception to be on a TV show.

However if his unit is stateside and his unit is not scheduled to deploy (maybe his ship is undergoing a refit), then give him leave.

Any details on what his unit status is?

Disclaimer: I once was granted a deployment exemption for family reasons (and no it was not a special favor like exhelodrvr suggests).

TMZ, you sink to a quite a low.
[via Hot Air]

……