More On “Poverty”

13 Oct, 2007 by Kathy Shaidle

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Prompted by “Frost-aquiddick”, I posted my thoughts on “poverty” — that is, that true poverty doesn’t exist in America, if the Frost family is the best example of same that the Democrats could cook up, in a nation of 300 million.

Mark Steyn called the post “brilliant,” while obscure lefty bloggers diagnosed me as “fat, ugly, insane and sexually frustrated.” Must be Tuesday…

I also received many emails like this one:

“During my last couple of years in Edmonton I worked downtown on one of the busier parts of Jasper Avenue. Every morning there would be the same homeless person parked out in front of our building. He was a straggly looking fellow with several days growth of bear (at least) who sat cross-legged with a hat in front of him and moaned softly while constantly rocking back and forth. He also had an peculiar odour about him, which led to a co-worker of mine giving him the nickname of “Mr. Stinky”.

“My morning ritual was to get off the bus and head over to the cafe across the street from my office for my morning coffee and bagel with cream cheese. On the way into my office I would flip a Loonie into Mr. Stinky’s hat. I figured that if I was making just shy of six figures and I could spend $4 on breakfast, surely I could spare a buck for this poor bastard. He probably averaged $20/mth from me. Some months he got more as I would throw in a bit extra around holidays. I think I dropped a twenty in his hat just before I started my X-mas break in 2004.

“So imagine my surprise one afternoon as I was at the bus stop after work and a *very nice* gold Lexus cruised past with Mr. Stinky behind the wheel, the moaning and rocking noticeably absent. Here I was riding the bus to and from work so I could put some extra dough into my kid’s college fund while the “homeless” person I’d been helping out for the past year was using my money to pay for a car that I couldn’t personally afford…”

As you all know, Frost-aquiddick has prompted lots of instant-classic right wing blog posts. I nominate this one as one of the top 5. The keeper bits?

“I’d like to know how in the wide wide world of sports [the Frost family is] managing to pay for all of this on $45k of income. There are only three possible answers: They’re not paying it on that income because they’re getting a good deal of unreported income which allows them to support this lifestyle…. else/and they are hyper-extended, credit-wise, and thereby essentially unprepared for ANY emergency. In any of these cases, there is very serious question about using these people as a poster for government takeover of health care.

“If in fact the Frosts are emblematic of the type of family the Democrats think are deserving of healthcare paid for with MY money, we as a nation have bigger problems than we’re going to be able to solve by throwing your money and mine at it. We have a problem centering on honesty and responsibility.

“We also have a problem with a political party willing to toss aside those concepts. Think about it; Democrats willing to toss aside honesty and responsibility. Does the concept shock you? Me, neither.”