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I heart Shepard Smith

The following blog post should probably be categorized under “0ld news that not many people care about anymore.” But sometimes I get some sort of prompt that reminds me of something else, and so on. My prompt for this post was seeing Shepard Smith on the Fox Report saying something incredibly sarcastic(and funny).

I’m not easily impressed by celebrities. Just because someone is famous doesn’t make them worthy of honor — often their fame and their subsequent intoxication by it makes them quite unworthy of honor and generally annoying in my opinion. I’m not saying that Shepard Smith is an honorable man. I honestly don’t know. But in the days following Hurricane Katrina, as politicians and pundants wasted valuable time pointing fingers at one another attempting to place the blame on somebody else’s shoulders, I saw Shepard Smith on a freeway overpass. An overpass that I have driven on many times. But instead of cars and trucks, it was filled with weary, desparate people who had not eaten nor even had clean water to drink in days. And instead of going for the “money shot” (the dead bodies scattered upon that vast stretch on concrete and steel) or allowing himself to be brought into some ridiculous conservative versus liberal debate, he stood there on that bridge and said the very words that I was screaming at my television: “Send help. Tiny babies are not getting formula and there are elderly people who are in desparate need of medical attention.” To whomever would listen he pleaded for someone to simply come and help. His frustration with the situation was obvious, and his outrage, while not fully expressed, was palattable and sincere. (Which, incidentally, was in stark contrast to Geraldo Rivera’s pathetic grandstanding outside the Superdome with a tiny baby held up in front of the cameras and saying without words “Look how incredibly compassionate I am”. But that’s another tangent — don’t EVEN get me started.) The following is a quote taken from a recent bio I read about Shepard Smith. It is in response to a question about an exchange between Sean Hannity and Smith after Hannity asked about “perspective”:

When I told Sean Hannity, “That’s all the perspective you need,” I was aware that thousands of people were living on a freeway in 95-degree weather, that some of them needed insulin, and some of them needed baby formula, and right over that bridge those things existed, and they weren’t allowed to go there. That was my whole world. I did not know that the rest of the world had turned this political. How the f*ck could they have done that? I was so astonished to get on one of our opinion programs — Hannity & Colmes — and to learn that the rest of the world was apparently thinking of Katrina in terms of left and right, R and D. Poverty is not a new thing to me. Segregation is not a new thing. But that these happen to be the people who are now in need, and no leadership is emerging to give them what they need, was beyond all reason. So that was all the perspective he needed. [Sean] just didn’t know that.

I have always liked Shepard Smith, but after that coverage I became a fan – mostly because he made it very clear to the viewer that these were human beings in dire need of attention, not just some breaking news story. In my opinion, he is someone that takes the business of reporting the news very seriously. He does not however, take himself or the media circus that he often finds himself the unwitting ring master of very seriously.

The following video is not a commentary on whether or not I think OJ Simpson is a murderer, whether justice can truly be blind when a celebrity is involved, or my personal opinion of Fox News Channel. The reason for this post has nothing to do with the aforementioned topics. I am posting this video because when it originally aired in November of 2007, I thought it was just about the most outrageously funny commentary I’ve ever heard on television. And because, as the title of the post indicates, I heart Shepard Smith.

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(Did you catch the part at the end where he gave out that guy’s email address? Classic!)

Hurricane Ike: They were not kidding…

Update: As of 4:00 a.m. this morning, our power is out again and it’s been raining pretty hard since about midnight. Our yard looks like a wetland habitat, but we are still counting our blessings. We were spared the worst of Ike’s fury. I dare not complain about the minor inconvenience of lost electricity since many lost much, much more…

Hang in there, my soggy neighbors.

Riding the Storm Out

Sheltering in Place

If you’ve been following my incredibly exciting life via “Hey look, a chicken”, you know that:

a) I have just finished cleaning and organizing my garage

b) Dislike lovebugs immensely

c) Wonder how ADD katdish has been able to finish so many projects and suspect that her doctor has increased her ritalin dosage.

d) Yes, you are correct. And I’m feeling much better, thank you!

In my 43 years of life experience, it has been my observation that most things happen for a reason. I believe that the reason I was prompted to clean up and clear out my house (specifically the garage) was so that my husband and I would be able to park both cars in it. We need to park both cars in the garage because of Hurricane Ike.

A few years ago, with Katrina fresh on everyone’s mind, Hurricane Rita was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and projected to be a big one. At that time, we decided to pack up the kids and the cat and seek shelter with my dad in Austin — which is a crazy story on its own — remind me to tell you about it sometime. It turns out that our town was spared. Rita hit our neighbors to the east.

Now, here comes Ike. I’m not a Chicken Little type. I’ve lived in Houston too long (since 1977) not to understand most hurricanes turn into heavy thunderstorms by the time they reach our neck of the woods. I take and “wait and see” approach to most of them. Although it is mildly amusing to see the local news reporters and anchors working themselves into a tizzy every time a storm gets big enough for a name.

I can honestly say that in my humble opinion, that unless you were in Houston in 1983 and rode the storm out during Alicia, you’ve never experienced a hurricane in Houston. I was here. Hunkering down with my mom, sister and two cats in a 2-story condo with big masking tape “X’s” on all the windows. Now that, my friends was a hurricane. It was scary, it was loud. It did an incredible amount of damage. We were without power for 2 weeks. It’s hard to believe that was 25 years ago. Alicia hit August 18, 1983. It was a category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 mph. Hurricane Ike is projected to be a category 3. If it peters out, then I will have bought my kids a month’s worth of junk food and water for no reason. But I’m not messing around with this one.

We’re putting plywood on some of the windows. Home Depot is limiting everyone to 3 sheets, or we’d being doing all of them. We’ve got gas for the generator and I’m filling the bathtubs up with water. My husband thinks I don’t take storms seriously enough. Usually, he is concerned enough for both of us. This time, I’m concerned. Not worried, but concerned. Some of my friends listed on my blogroll live here too. Would you please pray for protection for us and for our neighbors?

In the meantime y’all, I’m hunkering down and getting ready for that summbitch. I think we’re fixin’ to get it. (forgive me, my Texan comes out during crisis mode.)

See you on the other side.