Merry Christmas K+3

Is it just me, or are there far fewer Christmas lights up around town this year? It seems like even less than last year. I guess as is true to human nature, the novelty of having electricity again has worn away compared to last Christmas, the same way our new toys lose their luster after a few months.

I can't believe this is the THIRD Christmas since Katrina. What can one say to that? I got nothin.' So, I'll just pretend time isn't flying by by posting this little montage I made last year. It's a collection of images representing my memory of 2005 during Thanksgiving & Christmas of that year, my first trips home after having evacuated 8/28/05. It's a mixture of personal photographs and shots from the Times-Picayune that I was sifting through last year, and it turned into this, which ended up being quite therapeutic.



Actually, I guess we have come quite a ways since then.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, y'all.

Let's Be Honest Here

Can we please just call this battle to annex Timberlane subdivision to Gretna what it is? It's nothing more than the manifestation of that sick Greater New Orleans disease that causes wealthy and even barely-middle-class whites to insist they have the right to not have "people" (pronounced with the disgust normally deserved for rats) drive down THEIR street!! You can practically see their goosebumps from their gated entrances, can't you?

And the people in Bellemeade are just mad because the people in Timberlane are whiter and richer and about to beat them to the punch in closing their subdivision off.

Why does it irk me so? Because this is just the proliferation of the isolationism and parochialism and PURE SELFISHNESS that has destroyed this city and eventually this region, pretentious people with inflated concerns about securing their antiques while pretending to not have the time to tutor the schoolkids who, ironically, will drop out of school and grow up more likely to be the guy unloading their stupid antiques off the back of a delivery truck than the guy trying to steal them. It's no longer good enough to live in Jeff Parish because those black people have now moved to Terrytown and it only costs the ones from across the river .40 in toll with a toll tag to get to Timberlane Drive and -- yes, take the 3 minute drive down your street to get to either Lapalco or Belle Chasse Hwy at 30mph because no one is stupid enough to speed through there knowing how heavily police patrolled its been for 30 years. Jesus Gawd, the horror.

But whatever, go ahead. Go buy your fucking gate.

Insurance is a Fraud

SUCH A FREAKIN' FRAUD! I'd call it a "joke" if it weren't so immoral, or if it didn't make me want to cry from utter hopelessness everytime I think about it. So what the hell am I rambling about, you ask? The following is written VERBATIM in State Farm's Louisiana renter's insurance policy under the section titled "Losses Insured":

"1. Fire or lightning"

OK, simple enough. Right? One would think -- until one turns to the very next page titled "Losses Not Insured" and reads the following regarding "nuclear hazards":

"Loss caused by the nuclear hazard shall not be considered loss caused by fire, explosion or smoke.

However, we do insure for any direct loss by fire resulting from the nuclear hazard, provided the resulting fire loss is itself a Loss Insured."

My initial involuntary reaction was: "huh?", followed by the quickly growing realization of "WHAT THE F*-K IS THIS?!?"

What it is is a shameless, unconscionable, blatant tactic that allows the company to "rightfully" decide that they don't feel like compensating you for a particular loss.