Oh the Disparity!

    By LisB on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 12:05am |

    For some reason, tonight my mind is pondering these two different HGTV (Home and Garden TV channel, via cable) specials.

    I saw both of these at some point last year.  They struck me then, and even more so now, as being the perfect illustration as to what is wrong with our country today.

    In the first HGTV show, Holmes on Homes is asked to help a wheelchair bound woman finally complete the ongoing renovation she's been attempting on her bathroom.  She simply wants to be able to get from her wheelchair into her shower, easily and comfortably, without outside assistance.  Holmes not only fixes the issues a previous contractor left undone, but gives the woman an easily accessible kitchen remodel to boot.  All within budget of HGTV, presumably.  And very well appreciated by both the woman and us viewers.  A really nice, feel-good moment especially comes at the end of the episode when the lady realizes she can pull her baked goods out of the oven with ease for the first time.

    http://www.hgtv.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=113228

    In the second HGTV show, focusing on rich folks and how they amuse themselves, a couple explains why and how they turned a space in their mansion into a six-car garage-cum-ballroom.  Here is a link to their house, now for sale.

    http://southcoasthomes.ocregister.com/tag/hgtvs-million-dollar-rooms/

    I really have nothing more to say.

    (Cross-posted from Once Upon a Paradigm)

    Comments

    But if someone else has something to say, I'd be happy to hear it. 


    by LisB on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 12:49am

    Gee, c'mon LisB. That place has been marked down by $8.1 million! The way I see it, those folks have been sacrificing! 

    Maybe if we all chip in together, we could buy it, and have a place for DagParties! A place like that, if things get grumpy, everyone can have their own room. 

    It be just like Hef's! Only, instead of Bunnies, we'd have Bloggers!

    On second thought.....


    by quinn esq on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 1:13am

    Okay, Q, but I get the master bedroom. 


    by LisB on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 1:23am

    The cute "Call me crazy, but this is starting to look like a deal!"  really sells it for me.

    I think Q is right, I mean it's a short sell.  It seems gratuitous that they used to have more money than they knew what to do with, but now, they are taking a massive loss. Lets fasce it, life's hard for these folks right now, and your class warfare is just making it worse.  I mean they creating jobs when they built that room! Millions of dollars worth. Now our job makers are struggling. We NEED TO HELP THEM, or our economy crumbles  Have you seen the national DEBT? we need those jobs! 

    Meanwhile your old poor disabled woman is probably on social security and medicare just sucking off the public teat. Now that deadbeat just got another handout. Talk about inequity. This is where we put our resources?  On some money loser who can't even get into her own shower? It just makes you sick.  


    by Saladin on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 1:54am

    Yes, yes, I know.  Many painters must have come in to that garage - slash - ballroom to paint those frescoes on the wall.  So many starving artists now saved!  And the marble-setters who carefully planned the marble flooring that those six cars now drip oil upon.  I know!!  All those jobs, now lost, alas. 

    That disabled woman is such a slacker, isn't she?  Hiring three different workers in one year, just to give her a safe bathtub.  What on earth was she thinking, demanding so much???

    Welfare queen.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 2:30am

    Now listen here crazy....


    by Richard Day on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 9:57am

    Seriously. 

    It was a relief to find out poor old Larry Ellison, the billionaire, was finally going to get his view of the SF Bay. Poor fella. Those nasty downhill neighbors of his let their trees grow too tall and he couldn't see nuthin'!

    So he bought the house next door to his own.

    For $40 mil.

    And now has a clear view of...uh, water.

    Whew! Another happy ending for a rich guy!  That was a close one!

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch style home, those vile non-billionaires are getting put through the financial wringer for failure to pay the mortgage on a house full of snakes sold to them by Chase.

    Those damn poor people.  Always bitchin' about something!  The should be grateful that house came with a lifetime supply of meat for snake stew.

    Ingrates.


    by wabby on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 7:51am

    I did not know what you were talking about at first. But I get that channel on basic.

    It is kind of like This Old House for rich folks.

    This reminds me of the recent discussions on Fox. 

    They will be discussing those money grubbing public workers fighting for $40,000 a year and then discuss how hard it is to live on $250,000 a year.

    Their conclusion is that it would be unfair to hit up those making a quarter mill with another three percentage points in taxes!


    by Richard Day on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 10:07am

    Extreme Makeover, hosted by Ty Pennington, at least in the episodes I've seen, finds struggling people living in a shack and builds them garish, unsustainable McMansions. And later you find out those people are in foreclosure, or are forced to sell the white elephant they can't afford to keep up.

    I vastly prefer the Holmes on Homes approach. Holmes mercilessly rips out and replaces whatever was put in wrong, but keeps to a reasonable program. Holmes takes a bad middle class home and makes it a good middle class home.

    Holmes did do a show about building a post-Katrina house, but it was a lot grander than the average Katrina Cottage.

    I wonder if anyone's considered a show about Habitat for Humanity.


    by Donal on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 10:25am

    Until just a short while ago, I didn't know Habitat for Humanity was a worldwide organization.  I thought it was just inside the U.S.

    Yeah, one of those "building blitz" things HfH do would be an interesting show to watch.


    by wabby on Fri, 06/03/2011 - 11:28am

    Flash !!!

    We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this ongoing news update !!!

    So what part of the car chase don't you get there Liz? It's the news on the boob-tube and in the printed media as well as the programming advertizing sponsors believe the public should be watching and enjoying.

    So I have to ask ... why would you watch such a program in the first place?

    Could it be there's not that much intellectually entertaining to view? So doesn't that imply the public is being fattened up with frivolous programming of no apparent value to soften their resistance when things go from bad to worst? Just another boring TV program may translate into just another constitutional right the Congress usurps and everyone looks to change the channel instead of sitting up, taking notice and taking action. Perhaps there's a pycho ops element at play on public entertainment.

    BTW, the tickle fairy is now a gang member ... he belongs to that international terrorist group called Terrible Two's and is already a master at to bullying his way.


    by Beetlejuice on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 7:42pm

    The Television is a snare, a constant bombardment of mind altering signals.

    Images and thoughts designed to weaken our resolve

    A killer of time   

    Fattened up for the slaughter? Sheeple to serve the Corporate sponsors?. 

    RESIST the Television.

    Being able to Resist is our safeguard.

    IMHO Sitting in front of the boob tube, destroyed our neighborly spirit. 

    To the imbed Lord, the image had none of the ends you spoke of before .... .(jpg or .gif or .png.)so I couldnt get it to  work.

    Is this a differnt application than you suggested the last time?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9aENGodu5A&feature=player_detailpage


    by Resistance on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 11:36pm

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