Boy, you just get dumber by the post.

OK, so mac-whatever and you mentioned libertarianism. Now you bob and weave and say that it has something to do with the case at hand.

Glenn Greenwald likes to point out the hypocrisy of journalists, politicians, judges, lawyers, and others by applying the same standard of fairness to all situations.

Here we have a state that has "charged" people in the past for what the state considers is wrongful behavior resulting in money spent by the state. OK, that is the known rule applied to those foolish enough to go to their state. The normal fine/charge is a paltry few hundred dollars.

May I repeat. The standard fine/charge is a paltry few hundred dollars. This boy (child under the law) gets charged more than the normal --- way more.

Why? What "fairness" do you and the others wish to claim here?

...I think you have me confused with someone else.

"Sorry Eucalyptus, but I don't like being told something so basic as charging for a rescue is an example of big gummint."

WTF said anything about this? I just said why the hell are you discussing this on this blog and who gives a rats arse about someone getting themselves hurt in the bush! Dopey kid doesn't he know how to walk properly?.

By the way I heard a great story from home, Australia, I am in Germany at the moment.

This English kid was lost in the Blue Mountains, a kind of wilderness, about 100kms west of Sydney, except there are plenty of fire trails, roads, hiking tracks etc which apparently he eventually found one of and got out after 12 days. he was fouind by other hikers. It is wnter there an´d subzero at night.

He sold his story to the Australian (60 minutes) and English media and has pocketed about $250,000.00 (AUD) last time I heard and is going to donate most of it to the State Emergency Services who looked for him but did not find him. So there is a simple answer to your question. When lost, and found, wait for the highest bidder for your story and let the MEDIA pay for it. I think that is just great, seeing how much money the talking heads hirers waste on the likes of Chuck Todd and all the other government apologists on TV. Kind of poetic justice to my mind.

Also I am all for Big Government, I am a socialist( I know that is a dirty word to many Americans) and in Australia we have a socialist government (kind of) which created and maintains the best social security system in the world as well as the best universal healthcare system in the world. You yanks could learn a lot from us in Oz if you just stopped sending your armies all over the place and dragging ours along to make war instead of peace. Ahh peace rememebr that?

have you heard there are 3 soldiers dying in Afghnistan EVERY DAY FOR THE PAST THREE WEEKS? What a waste. Shades of an LBJ Vietnam quagmire for Obomber there!

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE WHITEHOUSE. President Obomber is thinking about redecorating the exterior with a nice beige colour while considering the war in the "Stan".

Obomber: Well General Fascistimo can we win this war

GF: Er I don't thnk so.

Obomber: Can we get out of it with a saving face kinda deal? there are a lot of kids dying there for er...what was it..oh that's right FREEDOM AND SECURITY!

GF: Er no.

Obomber: So we are damned if we do and damned if we don't. Is that what you are telling me?

GF: Er that just about sums it up. Sir.

Obomber: And you get paid for this shit?

GF: Yessir we ALL do.

I once pressed just a red bottom at a hotel in Manhattan and the Fire department showed up...
____________________________

To you it may have been "just a red bottom", but a hotel in Manhattan is the last place a child should be running around gratuitously pressing any bottom, much less a red one.

I mean, for one thing-- you had no idea where that bottom had been, much less what it was doing to become so rubicund.

I should think that paying the fine was the least of your parents' worries-- presuming that the bottom in question wasn't attached to either one of them, that is.

Walter never fished or hiked a day in his life in New Hampster.

looking for a new 'Walter' - I see a lot of 'talent here - anybody cares to apply?

-- pieceofcake

♪And that's the way it was.♫

How was my inflection? Should I apply?

For the record, you are now arguing that the kid's parents should have been required to buy insurance before the kid set out, and that they shouldn't have rescued the kid on tax dollars, because your ancestors lived in some other mountains someplace. And you are calling us cold? You didn't know what you were talking about when you copied this story from some fellow propagandist. I tried to point you to people who do, I explained to you what happened and how the charges were accrued, and you persist in carrying the same meaningless propaganda forward, and dropping insults at everyone who disagrees with your rigid dogma. You said early on in this that you'd never been up where this kid got lost, you should be able to tell from what I wrote that I probably have. But that's okay, fit the news to the message you wanted to find, and refuse to back down. Just a few more of those and you'll be ready for a career in today's journalism. But thanks for staying on topic.

bystander I think it's a great idea, selling tranched SKIPs (Stupid Kid Insurance Policies). And SKIPs to the nth, where you make bets on kids of various levels of stupidity, then line them up and skim off the most likely to walk off a cliff, and use a Tuckerman's Copula to figure out how to create a martingale marrying cliff hanging with thin ice walking. We can call it the Juvenile Economy, and let Goldmine-Sucks serve as a conduit, in this case called a SKIP rope, or Fonzy Scheme. It's based on the solid economic principle that elevator jumping never decreases in value.