And a walk-in closet the size of Rhode Island

[democrank]

Warning...this is going to be a harsh example of old-lady-ology.

I needed a break from nightime political shows so I started watching an occasional House Hunters on HGTV. As sappy as it sounds, I thought I might gain some insight into the current real estate/home mortgage fiasco. What was happening in Denver? Seattle? Portland? I certainly found out and it wasn`t pretty. Let me put it this way...gone are the days when folks are grateful for a roof over their heads. It`s 4,000+ square feet, swimming pool, media room, 3.5 bathrooms, at least four bedrooms, and a master bedroom walk-in closet the size of Rhode Island. Anything less is just "too cramped" even for someone only four years out of a college dorm. And, any kitchen not outfitted with granite countertops is "too dated" even for a 26-year old still planning the ingredients of her first non-microwaved meal. It would be an understatement to say I was floored. I grew up dirt poor with kids stacked up like cordwood. We never asked for a new bike because supper to count on was the real treat.

I wonder if this McMansion thing is what we were occupied with while the CIA guys were screwing chains into the ceilings of our All-American Black Sites? I wonder what the people the CIA kept locked in tiny boxes would have thought of a "too cramped" master bedroom suite large enough for the population of most any average city block?

What happened to us? How did looking away become so easy? Even here at an alleged Democratic "underground" one can read excuse after excuse as to why we should be patient when it comes to rising up against the torturers or the wiretappers or the war liars or the corporate thugs.
If I was on my second day of hanging from a couple of ceiling chains "offshore" I`d pray for an end to house hunting and beg for the reading of war crimes definitions.

Please don`t tell me to back off and celebrate our great victory. If we don`t take a collective national position on these war crimes, we`ve won nothing. Nothing.

I`ve seen torture and I know what it feels like to be desolated by the silence of those who could have stopped it. Please, I beg you...do something.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I think you're on to something .............

Admittedly, I never connected the two concepts that you so neatly joined, but I do believe that we were collectively distracted by the easy credit and the MORE MORE MORE theme that seemed to be the ideal. It was all so easy and shopping became the National Pasttime.

Of course, with all our new digs, new cars, new STUFF we hardly paid attention to what those thugs in the Oval Office were doing, and, so what if they weren't exactly legal? We had all these nice new shiny things to keep us happy.

Nice new shiny things that we can't even sell now to whomp up funds for the next mortgage payment.

And the dead keep piling up in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan, too. They don't have any new nice shiny things to keep them happy. But at least President Obama has done some things - stem cell research, for example - that begun to undo the damage done during the past eight horrid years.

Nice catch, democrank.......................

[NashVegas]

2. Study After Study Says People Shop To Lift Their Spirits

My mom died. I bought a new set of china. Serves 10.

[Warpy]

4. My mon died. I went blind

I polished the silverware my Dad insisted I take with me after she died.

That was it for shopping.

I did look rather pathetically forward to going to the grocery to buy my root veggies and the co-op to buy my grains and beans.

When my dad died and I inherited a ridiculous amount of money, I bought a Sunday paper and checked out the ads and discovered there was nothing much I wanted to buy.

My big present for myself was an electric knife sharpener with diamond wheels. Wow. And the first corneal transplant.

[MuseRider]

3. I agree with Tangerine

nice thinking.

I don't see this as "old-lady-ology" although I am certainly on my way to that if not already there myself. It is common sense but it is common sense to those of us who were happy to have supper and if we were lucky a slice of cake once in a while. We did not see many shiny things growing up but my kids grew up with shiny things all around them. Too many take all of that for granted. They had to be taught what those shiny things often meant and hid.

"Please don`t tell me to back off and celebrate our great victory. If we don`t take a collective national position on these war crimes, we`ve won nothing. Nothing.

I`ve seen torture and I know what it feels like to be desolated by the silence of those who could have stopped it. Please, I beg you...do something."

K&R

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. .

:thumbsup:

[Dervill Crow]

6. I can't watch HGTV.

It makes me dissatisfied with all the wonderful blessings I have and nurtures my inner crass consumerist shadow self. I'm ashamed to admit that, but it's true, and you are so correct. The sight of all of those spoiled babies looking for their 3000-sq-ft starter homes dovetails nicely with the previous pResident telling us to go shop on Sept 12th. Yeah, go shop while "me :smirk: and my buddies :smirk:" rip the constitution to shreds and build our empire.

This was gonna just be a quick K&R, but you struck a nerve. Yes, we need to focus on what is important.

:kick:

[Warpy]

7. I was toying with the idea of renovating this place

into something that would at least work a little better than what I have, so I started watching it when I got a dish 3 years ago.

I didn't watch it long. If it wasn't some clothes horse snarking about throwing a mate out of a closet the size of my living room, it was the yuppie who insisted on a trophy kitchen full of stainless steel and acres of granite and then sniffing that oh, s/he just never cooked, like it was something best left to the undeserving poor who didn't know any better.

House porn just made me angry, living in a shabby fixer in a ghetto that happens to be just the right size for me but poorly designed. I think what galls me is the entitlement expressed by these people. I kept wondering who the hell they were, California wasn't all investment bankers and film stars. Now I know they were using shady financing.

Now I find all those old house porn shows to be unbearably sad because I know all those clothes horses and sniffing yuppies are probably facing foreclosure. Most of that garbage was taped in 2004/2006.

I just can't watch them any more. I'll have to pull all my ideas out of my butt if I do get this place overhauled. It'll probably be better that way.

[DCKit]

10. "House Porn". Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

It so is.

Funny that you mentioned the non-culinary inclined demanding top-shelf kitchens too. After seeing *that* parade (show, after show, after show), I quit watching too. Just made me too damn angry.

[BigBearJohn]

8. e.x.a.c.t.l.y (wish I said that!) Thanks for posting! K/R!!!

If we don`t take a collective national position on these war crimes, we`ve won nothing. Nothing

[barbtries]

9. yep

i can't look away. watch platinum weddings if you really want to your BP to go up. is it old ladyish? i guess i'm just an old hippie but i do believe that if i had that kind of money i would not be spending it thataway.