Jonah Goldberg Defends Fire Department Letting House Burn Down

Only Jonah Goldberg can defend a local fire department in Obion County, Tennessee letting the house of the Cranick family burn down. The fire department literally watched the house burn. The reason being the Cranicks didn't pay a $75 fee to the fire department. At the scene, Gene Cranick offered to pay the fire department. Along with the home four pets were killed.

Goldberg used the words "compassionate conservatives" in describing this insane policy.

Here’s the more important part of the story, letting the house burn — while, I admit sad — will probably save more houses over the long haul. I know that if I opted out of the program before, I would be more likely to opt-in now. No solace to the homeowner, but an important lesson for compassionate conservatives like our own Dan Foster (Zing!). As Edmund Burke said, example is the school of mankind and he will learn from no other.

Young Turks host Cenk Uygur notes that the fire department did not even go into the house to see if it was evacuated. The fire could have spread and harmed more people. As a safety policy what the fire department did was horrible.



National Review contributor Kevin D. Williamson uses the words "full of jerks, freeloaders, and ingrates" to describe the Cranicks. I wonder if Williamson would hold himself to such a high conservative standard that he wouldn't bitch if a fire department let his house burned down. I seriously doubt it.

And, for their trouble, the South Fulton fire department is being treated as though it has done something wrong, rather than having gone out of its way to make services available to people who did not have them before. The world is full of jerks, freeloaders, and ingrates — and the problems they create for themselves are their own. These free-riders have no more right to South Fulton’s firefighting services than people in Muleshoe, Texas, have to those of NYPD detectives.

This is how the conservative movement views the free market. Goldberg and Williamson would defend a local police force making a homeless woman pay a fee to file rape charges. The world the National Review wants Americans to live in doesn't care about anything, but making a buck.