"Well, you might try to refrain from such inflammatory language for one thing (Consider this a forum rules compliance issue) and try answering the question on the other. Forthrightness goes a long way towards enhancing one's credibility. Evasions have the opposite effect."
Excuse me Mike, but I've never evaded any of your questions, aside from the one post where I did not receive the majority of your commentary...which it usually is...commentary, I've always answered your questions on the rare occasions where you've actually asked questions. I'm glad to know "stupid" is now considered "inflammatory" in North Carolina. I'll have to remember that next time I'm down south.
"People who are knowingly engaging in an illegal operation (As these people would be.) are rarely known for being especially principled in the first place."
And you must know this because you know the intentions of all people engaging in illegal operations past and present right?
"Doing something illegal hardly inspires confidence."
Mayhaps not. Unlike you, I reserve all of my final judgments until I've read and considered all the evidence of the case. For an American you're certainly big on the "guilty until proven innocent" theory. If I were a lawyer, I'd hate to see you sitting on my jury.
"When somebody is breaking the law in the first place, why would anyone presume otherwise???"
Please read the above paragraph.
"This assumes you're dealing with an ethical group in the first place. For the reasons outlined above, this presumption is suspect in the extreme."
Well, if you're working under that presumption then you must also believe the people involved are "stupid" and I'm having a hard time swallowing that. And even if they are working for wealthy, private buyers, you must be presuming they buyers must be just as stupid as well right? I can just see you vividly imagining a wealthy businessman holding a disintegrating chamber pot in his hands. "Gee I never expected this would happen after paying so much money to have someone go to the bottom of the ocean where it's been for nearly one hundred years sitting in a caustic environment and retrieving it without first stabilizing it afterwards." I'd like to believe someone with that much money isn't that dumb...because if they are...wow.
"Hopes are not realities, and I doubt that anybody going on an illegal expedition would be so stupid as to put everything on public display. The authorities would tend to take a very unpleasant interest in this."
Yes, hopes are not realities, but until the worst is confirmed I can hope can't I? Again, as I've stated at least twice before, I know nothing about international law but I'm still adhering to my "Let's wait and see," attitude and then when one of us is proven right he can say "Well neener, neener and nyah, nyah" to the other.
"Yes it is...and that is exactly what people who plunder antiquties do."
If they are solely plundering antiquities for wealthy, international buyers then yes. But the antiquities in question here aren't like the usual humdrum paintings, jewelry or furniture...these are antiquities that must be maintained in a controlled environment, they can't simply be hung on a wall or placed in a shadowbox. And let's assume this expedition was financed by private buyers...then we also must assume the objects retrieved are few and far between. They'd have specific requests wouldn't they? Trying to locate specific items in the debris field would literally be like finding a needle in a haystack, and please excuse the cliche. And an entire retrieval mission undertaken to retrieve maybe a hundred specific artifacts is indeed possible, but unlikely.
I still have a very strong feeling this isn't simply a plundering operation...I think it's a question of retrieving what can be retrieved before it's too late. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here as twiddling one's thumbs as the courts try to sort this entire mess out while anything else retrievable on the ocean floor slowly rots away would be extremely frustrating for anyone with the means and motivation to recover antiquities on the ocean floor.
Thanx for my morning dose of vitriol. I feel so relaxed now that I'm actually going to enjoy my commute into NYC this morning.
Please note Mike, this will be my last response posted on this specific subject, as I'm essentially just repeating myself now anyway. Anyone who feels compelled to take up the cross on the pros of this expedition...please...feel free.
Patrick D.
