A sad day for history lovers everywhere...

[BlairH]

From this report, it sounds like the National D-Day Museum has been looted.

Although this link http://thepresentpast.blogspot.com/ deals primarily with Civil War related museums & sites, read the report from- New Orleans: Confederate Memorial Hall Update."the National D-Day museum directly across the street from the Confederate Museum has been "gutted and trashed by looters."

Sad days for History lovers. Indeed, I liken this to the burning of the library at Alexandria :mad:

The D-Day museum was Steven Ambrose's (Band of Brothers) brainchild and the safety of the museum and it's artifacts was in the back of my mind for the last few days. However now it looks as if the looters got to it. :(

You can quote Wesley's signature if you want.

[Noah Johnson]

That does suck. Maybe when an American museum is looted we'll get a response a little more meaningful than "Freedom's untidy."

[Adam Crocker]

Well fuck. On top of the disaster of New Orleans and the fact that the city was the birthplace of Jazz and had a great R&B scene, here's one more thing to up my pessimism: people looting musuems. As a historian I know exactly how you feel Blair.

[BlairH]

Well fuck. On top of the disaster of New Orleans and the fact that the city was the birthplace of Jazz and had a great R&B scene, here's one more thing to up my pessimism: people looting musuems. As a historian I know exactly how you feel Blair.

I reckon the looters were probably after the (non functioning!) WWII weaponry.

The weaponry can be replaced (there's loads of sulprus around), however it's the memorabilia and personal effects that are/were on display that can never be replaced. I hope the looters didn't trash the place.

[Charles RB]

Motherfuckers. :mad:

[BlairH]

Motherfuckers. :mad:

Indeed.
There's no need for such barbaric acts of destruction!

When the big easy is rebuilt. I will make it my personal quest to go over there and slap all of the looters in the face with a trout.

[Alex]

Well fuck. On top of the disaster of New Orleans and the fact that the city was the birthplace of Jazz and had a great R&B scene, here's one more thing to up my pessimism: people looting musuems. As a historian I know exactly how you feel Blair.
Weren't museuems one of the first things looted in Baghdad as well.
Im not saying its good, but it's certainly understandable if the person wants to make money later on, a Antique WW2...something or other is going to be worth more then a tv you carried through water.

[Samurai]

This is how looters were treated after a previous major hurricane:


Looters found despoiling the dead were stood against the nearest wall or pile of debris and shot without hindrance of a trial. The grisly work of collecting the dead continued by torchlight. The workers were issued generous rations of bourbon and strong cigars. They breathed through handkerchiefs soaked in bourbon and smoked cigars to mask the smell.

In the sweltering heat that followed the storm, decomposition was rapid. The bodies soon lost the rigidity of rigor mortis and had to be shoveled into carts. At times the fixed bayonets of the militia were all that kept many of the men at their work. Superintendents of the work gangs were finally given permission to torch the wreckage wherever found rather than try to extricate pieces of flesh from the ruins and cart them away.

“It was like living in a battlefield. The fuel-oil smoke hung over the city, day and night, and the heavy air was never free of the smell of carbolic acid, of lime, of putrefaction.”

— Death from the Sea: The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr.

Looters found despoiling the dead were summarily executed by the militia - stood against the nearest wall or pile of debris and shot without the hindrance of a trial. The same brutal justice was delivered to amateur photographers. “Word received from Galveston today indicates that Kodak fiends are being shot down like thieves. Two, it is stated, were killed yesterday while taking pictures of nude female bodies.”

— Dallas News, September 14, 1900.

[BlairH]

This is how looters were treated after a previous major hurricane:

Despoiling the dead? :eek:
In what way?

[Wesley Dodds]

You can quote Wesley's signature if you want.

OK.

"But then again I've never had S, let alone TD" -- Blair H

[BlairH]

OK.

"But then again I've never had S, let alone TD" -- Blair H
I meant my now infamous rant about the morality (or lack thereof) of man. Not my record of sexual (or lack thereof) activity.

[Samurai]

Despoiling the dead? :eek:
In what way?
By looting their bodies, I'd guess. And some reporters/photographers were executed on sight too, as the 2nd quote shows...

[Adam Crocker]

The weaponry can be replaced (there's loads of sulprus around), however it's the memorabilia and personal effects that are/were on display that can never be replaced. I hope the looters didn't trash the place.

But knowing looters they probably did. :(

This is how looters were treated after a previous major hurricane:

Damn! Of course I guess it's unsurprising considering that, time period aside, despoiling the dead is treated as a crime that's on a higher order than other forms of looting.

Weren't museuems one of the first things looted in Baghdad as well.

They were certainly among the places looted that got the most prominent attention, but I'm not sure if they were the first places to get looted or not since there seems to have been a lot of looting going on concurrently.

[Adam Crocker]

By looting their bodies, I'd guess. And some reporters/photographers were executed on sight too, as the 2nd quote shows...

Quote says they were amateurs and the reasons for which they were executed it strikes me that they weren't reporters.

[Samurai]

Quote says they were amateurs and the reasons for which they were executed it strikes me that they weren't reporters.
That is just the 2 from the previous day... it also says "Kodak fiends are being shot down like thieves"...

[BlairH]

Quote says they were amateurs and the reasons for which they were executed it strikes me that they weren't reporters.

Maybe it was their "duty" as "reporters" to get some "hands on experience"?

[Alex]

...
Anyone else wondering if the cops and helicopters that got shot at were possibly getting shot at with one of these
http://212.84.179.117/i/Luger.jpg
"I'm gonna kill me a looter and get his luger!"

[BlairH]

...
Anyone else wondering if the cops and helicopters that got shot at were possibly getting shot at with one of these
http://212.84.179.117/i/Luger.jpg
"I'm gonna kill me a looter and get his luger!"

My great grandfather had a Luger before the jackbooted Nazi/Commies orginised the "great gun burning of 1997" :(

I f*cking loved that pistol!

(by Jackbooted Nazi/Commies I am referring to Snowdrop, the media, the Conservative gov't and the New Labour gov't. Heck. I'm referring to everybody who gave us a hard time back in '96/97)

[ghostrider666]

This is how looters were treated after a previous major hurricane:

The same shouldve been done in NO 3 days ago!

[acagle7]

Words cannot express how angry I am to hear about the looting of the museums.

[BlairH]

Words cannot express how angry I am to hear about the looting of the museums.

Indeed! It really grinds my gears that
"oh! Let's destroy a source of knowlege for a few laughs har har har!"

[K'Nort]

Indeed! It really grinds my gears that
"oh! Let's destroy a source of knowlege for a few laughs har har har!"

I doubt anyone was laughing.

It's a horrible thing to happen. One of many many horrible things to come out of this.

But mob behaviour is always worse than people expect. And it's completely irrational. I almost want to call it temporary insanity (And yes, in terms of a legal defense, too.) And these have certainly been conditions to drive people mad.

This was something symbolic of the power structure. That would set folks off.

[BlairH]

(And yes, in terms of a legal defense, too.)

I disagree. Being involved in a mob does not negate the mens rea of a crime because you still play an part as a member of the mob. You can chose to *not* be a member of the mob at any time.

If you introduce mob influence as a defence, you'll sudennly see many "mobs" springing up and comitting crimes. "I'm sorry officer. I was just acting as part of a mob."

[Adam Crocker]

That is just the 2 from the previous day... it also says "Kodak fiends are being shot down like thieves"...

Which was used in reference to the two shot down.

[Gordon Smith]

I'm wondering if anything similar has happened to the Eisenhower Center for American Studies.

[K'Nort]

Better news for history lovers:

New Orleans Public Library is delighted to be able to announce that the New Orleans City Archives, which we hold, is relatively safe. Although the majority of our records (as well as the 19th and early 20th century records of the Orleans Parish civil and criminal courts) are housed in the basement of the Main Library, some 18 feet below sea level, the basement remained essentially dry. Wayne Everard , our archivist, and I were able to get access to the building yesterday, along with another NOPL staff member and a representative of Munters. We discovered that the basement sustained NO FLOODING, although there is a very small amount of water in one area, possibly caused by sewer backup. This water caused no direct damage to records themselves.

The Main Library itself (across the plaza from city hall, about 4 blocks from the Dome) came through almost unscathed. Several windows blew out in the area of our Technology Center causing quite a bit of damage there, but the damage is confined to that closed in room. There is also evidence of very minimal roof leakage on the first floor -- most of it missing the books. On the whole, however, the Main Library is in excellent shape. Earlier reports that vandals had entered the building are incorrect. Our branch run van was looted and we believe another van was stolen from the parking lot, but it is clear that no one got into the building, either to vandalize or to shelter there.

The NOPL system itself has been hit hard -- probably about half of our 11 branch libraries are under water. But these we can (and will) rebuild. The fact that the archives have survived leaves us almost delerious with relief.

We are working now to arrange for Munters to stabilize the Main Library building until we can all return and begin the rebuilding process.

Thank you all for your expressions of concern and offers of assistance. We are unbelievably lucky, and I think I now believe in miracles....

Irene W, Assistant Archivist, Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library

[bfrank]

Indeed.
There's no need for such barbaric acts of destruction!

When the big easy is rebuilt. I will make it my personal quest to go over there and slap all of the looters in the face with a trout.
please come so I can slap you back...

[StoneGold]

please come so I can slap you back...
Real men don't slap, they punch.

[BlairH]

please come so I can slap you back...

Did you loot the D-Day museum? If so then I will slap you.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Did you loot the D-Day museum? If so then I will slap you.

Slap? You're such a bitch!

What do you think Ike or MacArthur would say about slapping?

[Cyke]

My great grandfather had a Luger before the jackbooted Nazi/Commies orginised the "great gun burning of 1997" :(

I f*cking loved that pistol!

(by Jackbooted Nazi/Commies I am referring to Snowdrop, the media, the Conservative gov't and the New Labour gov't. Heck. I'm referring to everybody who gave us a hard time back in '96/97)

Me being a moderate control advocate, I have to say: that's a fuckin' sweet pistol. No joke.

Hell, it's of the same family of pistols that Dave Chappelle used to kill an 18th century slavemaster. There's no hatin on a luger there.

[BlairH]

Slap? You're such a bitch!

What do you think Ike or MacArthur would say about slapping?

Maybe I should just listen to Curtis Lemay and nuke him? :D

[spoon_jenkins]

According to this page, (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=563199) according to a Thurs. Sept. 8 post at the same blog originally cited, and I believe also according to Tom Brokaw on MSNBC, the National D-Day Museum is actually mostly okay.

I'm a history nerd, but I feel too shitty about what's happened to human beings to spend much time worrying about museums.

[Charles RB]

Real men don't slap, they punch.

How do you punch someone with a trout? Can't be done.

[JeffreyWKramer]

How do you punch someone with a trout? Can't be done.
Real men don't let fish do their fighting for them.

[K'Nort]

Slap? You're such a bitch!

What do you think Ike or MacArthur would say about slapping?

Or Patton!


Oh wait....

How do you punch someone with a trout? Can't be done.

Wrap it around your fist. Or just stick your hand down it's throat.

[Gordon Smith]

I'm a history nerd, but I feel too shitty about what's happened to human beings to spend much time worrying about museums.

While the salvage of buildings and artifacts and records and all such things must necessarily be of secondary import compared to rendering aid to the human lives at stake in this catastrophe, these museums and other institutions will shortly replace the fading human memories of the Mightiest Endeavour. I, for one, would not care to see such memorials and repositories of the past lost to wanton criminality. The Museum should be salvaged as soon as humanly possible so no farther damage or loss is substained to the records we hope to pass on to future generations.

[darkkeeperjr]

The art museum in raleigh is collecting money to save the art museum of NO. it's trying to raise money to send people over there to protect and save the museums.

[Hiromi]

Real men don't let fish do their fighting for them.
Monty Python did, thats enough for me.

[BlairH]

Monty Python did, thats enough for me.

Cut down the tallest tree.....with this HERRING!

Nie! Nie! Nie!

[Hiromi]

Don't forget the fish slapping dance

http://www.intriguing.com/mp/_video/fish.avi