Again with the giant TVs

Michelle Malkin recently ran a story about the public housing protest in New Orleans where she featured one protester in particular:

The “Shut up, white boy!” woman is the “slum” dweller with a 60-inch TV

So, does she look familiar? This Sharon Jasper is the same Sharon Jasper profiled in the New Orleans Times-Picayune sulking in her government-subsidized apartment with hardwood floors and HUGEtastic flat-screen television and complaining that it’s a “slum:”

img source: Michelle Malkin

What makes Sharon Jasper’s home a slum? In her own words:

Sharon Jasper, a former St. Bernard complex resident presented by activists Tuesday as a victim of changing public housing policies, took a moment before the start of the City Hall protest to complain about her subsidized private apartment, which she called a “slum.” A HANO voucher covers her rent on a unit in an old Faubourg St. John home, but she said she faced several hundred dollars in deposit charges and now faces a steep utility bill.

“I’m tired of the slum landlords, and I’m tired of the slum houses,” she said.

Pointing across the street to an encampment of homeless people at Duncan Plaza, Jasper said, “I might do better out here with one of these tents.”

Jasper, who later allowed a photographer to tour the subsidized apartment, also complained about missing window screens, a slow leak in a sink, a warped back door and a few other details of a residence that otherwise appeared to have been recently renovated.

Emphasis mine.

Looking at her list of complaints reminds me of a weekend to-do list of repairs for my home. Guess I live in a slum as well.

Again I can’t help but wonder how people who complain about not having money for food, utilities or basic home repair can somehow find a way to acquire these massive TVs. Seriously, I’d like to know since my 28″ CRT TV could stand a bit of updating.

Related: ABC’s Extreme Makeover Show

Arctic Sea Ice Re-Freezing at Record Pace

Well this article certainly is an interesting read. Not only because of it’s subject matter, but also because you can almost feel how much it pained the author to write it:

Arctic Sea Ice Re-Freezing at Record Pace

The record melting of Arctic sea ice observed this summer and fall led to record-low levels of ice in both September and October, but a record-setting pace of re-freezing in November, according to the NASA Earth Observatory. Some 58,000 square miles of ice formed per day for 10 days in late October and early November, a new record.

emphasis mine.

First up, the sub-headline of the article:
After Record Summer Melt, Recovery Still Lags

So we have a record freeze after a record melt, but it still lags.

Then we have the browser title for the article:

So even though we have a record freeze, its a slow freeze. Does any else get the impression that steps are being taking to put as much negative spin on this as possible?

How about this quote:

Still, so much ice melted that the fabled Northwest passage opened for the first time in history, and the melting broke a record, set just two years ago and by a country mile, that at the time was seen as unprecedented and worrying.

again, emphasis mine.

This statement is so inaccurate that it’s close to being an outright lie. ‘For the first time in history’? Really? Lets take a look at the wikipdedia article on the Northwest Passage. Here’s a key quote:

On August 21, 2007 the Northwest Passage became open to ships without the need of an icebreaker. According to Nalan Koc of the Norwegian Polar Institute this is the first time it has been clear since they began keeping records in 1972.

1972? That’s how far the records go back? Thats it? Well that’s not a very good scientific sample (neither is wikipedia, but thats another topic). Hopefully data that started in 1972 isn’t what the author based their ‘First time in history’ statement on.

edit: I started writing this entry a few days ago… before most of the accompanying comments were posted. I think it’s amusing how closely the latest comment reflects my thoughts:

This must have been a painful article for the reporter to write. He just couldn’t bring himself to face the facts that maybe we are witnessing a very natural, long term process of the earth “being the earth.” According to ship’s records, the northwest passage has been ice free many times in the past. It takes a lot of nerve to play that old “first time in history” card.

You learn something new every day

Did you know it was illegal to drive with Christmas lights on your car? Well I didn’t. Apparently you can drive around with as many fake antlers, Raven’s flags, wreaths and every other damn thing stuck to your automobile but wrap a few strands of lights around your roof rack and wire them to an inverter and you get a ‘order to repair’ ticket for ‘non DOT approved lighting’.

Thanks for deleting my comment

It makes me happy. as I’ve said before, it’s your site and you can run it as you like. However, when you delete a comment you don’t agree with, it only shows that that comment was so solid and correct, you realized you couldn’t refute it… you could only bury it.

So I’ll put my comment here.

Standing Cheese recently wrote an entry about the Baltimore bus beating incident. Berlow’s Freak Show comes along and takes a quote from the article completely out of context (and without properly noting his editing of the comment I might add) and posts the following:

Actually, Maryland is the richest state in America, recently edging out New Jersey for the top spot.

I suspect that Baltimore city blacks don’t benefit as much as suburban whites from Maryland having the highest median income in the nation.

Maryland has a wonderful public library system. Also, the proximity to the Nation’s Capital shouldn’t be overlooked. All of DC is on the Maryland side of the Potomac River, since Virginia took its half back around the time of the Civil War.

All I said in response was that Prince Georges County alone skews any ‘wealth’ statistics for the entire state. Have you been to Western Maryland Lately? The Eastern Shore? Definitely not the richest areas of America. I’m really not sure what caused him to remove my comment (as well as one from another commenter) but I do know it was posted after I wrote it only to have it disappear later.

In any case, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the I-95 corridor represents most of the wealth in the state of Maryland. Maryland is much, much more than that.

ABC’s Extreme Makeover show

Extreme Makeover is a show we occasionally watch as a family on Sunday evenings. The kids love it because Ty Pennington acts like a nut. I pay attention from time to time but always feel a bit uncomfortable since I have a hard time believing anyone can build a quality home in a week. I’ve always wanted to go back to the earliest home they’ve done and seen just how well things like the chemically treated quick-set concrete has actually held up…. but I digress.

From Extreme Makeover’s website, here is the bio from last Sunday’s (12-9) show:

Sarah and Lou have two loving and bright sons, Kane (2) and Louie Angelo Jr. (1+1/2). Louie Angelo Jr. was diagnosed with multiple birth defects, including Arthogryposis, club feet and skeletal displasia. Although he can’t move very well, he loves to paint. With this in mind, Sarah started an organization in honor of her son which allows children to paint and auction off their work to raise money and awareness for their particular disease.

Both Sarah and Lou are creative and supportive parents but, have limited resources and a home which is not at all adapted to Louis Jr.’s needs. They’ve tried making ramps and done their best, but it’s not enough. Their home was built on a weak foundation that consists of tree trunks, bare earth and shifting blocks that don’t support the house. Engineers said that one day, without warning, it will collapse and possibly harm everyone inside. In bad weather, rain pours in through the hallways, making it difficult for emergency medical technicians to maneuver when called upon for Louie.

During the build up phase of the show (the first 5-10 minutes), they talked up the problems with the house including the bad foundation (house bought with no inspection I take it?), poor access for EMTs, bad roof and little to no insulation. Then they begin the walk-through of the house… and it looks awful. The place is literally falling apart, and um…. what a second…. what’s that?

Does anyone else see what I see? That looks like a very new and very large HD Flatscreen TV on a very new TV stand next to a very large speaker that seems to be blocking the path into the room (EMTs anyone?). What the hell?

Ok… Ok…. lets not jump to conclusions. Lets assume the parents didn’t buy the large flatscreen HDTV… and possibly HD cable/satellite service to go with? Hmmm…. there’s the satellite dish… maybe it’s not active… maybe they just watch DVDs…

Ok… really, lets not jump to conclusions. Maybe they won the TV, cabinet and stereo system. Hell, maybe it was a gift. Trust me, I can understand needed a bit of entertainment now and then to forget about things for a while. But you know what? If your home is so bad that rain pours through the roof, you have no insulation and engineers say that your foundation could collapse at any moment, SELL THE LARGE FLATSCREEN HDTV and use the money to fix up your home.

This seems to be a case of wants before needs. You can make do with a smaller TV.

Possibility of Gore running for the White House again?

Gore: I’d only consider White House bid

Former Vice President Al Gore denied again that there were any campaign plans in his immediate future, but told CNN Monday that he hadn’t “ruled out getting back into the political process at some point” — and that if he did return to political life, it would be to take another shot at the White House.

Looking through the current selection of candidates we have (both Democrat and Republican), I’d love nothing more than to have Al Gore’s name on the ticket. I’d have somebody to vote for (speaking of which… someone poke Fred Thompson… he fell asleep again)

This Al Gore:

Al Gore Discusses the tie between Iraq and Terrorism in 1992

Gore To Bush: You Ignored Saddam’s Terrorist Ties!

But remember: Outlaw states and terrorists, Nuclear weapons programs, chemical and biological Weapons…. you know, weapons of mass destruction. It’s only a lie when George Bush says it:

1998 State of the Union Address:

The will of the World (when a Democrat is in office).