I was premature in saying that I wasn’t going to write anything else about Katrina 10 malakatude. I learned about this after posting on Monday. It *almost* makes the resilience tours look less tacky. Almost.

What’s an American “celebration” without a crappy, tasteless souvenir to put on the mantle?

That’s right, ladies and germs, for a mere 45 bucks you can have your very own Hurricane Katrina Snowglobe. The houses come in 4 colors and the scariest thing of all is that the order page at the web site says that the yellow house is sold out. That’s right, people are actually buying this tacky thing.

I am gobsmacked that this disgusting bit of killer kitsch is selling. It reflects the death of common decency as well as common sense. Who celebrates a disaster that killed an estimated 1,800 human beings? Some guy named Brad Maltby, consider him the de facto malaka of the week. I have no idea whether he’s a hipster trendhopper, disaster tourist, or long time resident with no taste but really dude? Making money off a tragedy? E is for exploitation. T is for tacky.

Malaka Maltby is clearly clueless. The next passage is a quote from the web site and follows an insipid “poem” by his stepfather:

Look closely, you’ll notice the blue tarp on the roof that FEMA gave out. Almost every house had one on it.

There is a red X, that EVERY house was marked with when it’s doors were smashed in and searched. There was a code that marked who entered, when, how and how many bodies were found.

Of course there is a water line, a still very visible scar of the times.

And finally the debris in the dirty water that filled all the flooded houses, about 200,000 in New Orleans alone.

The sparkles represent the strangeness of it all and the good things that would come out of it all in the future for so many people.

The target audience for this shitglobe is obviously NOT people who experienced the storm and subsequent flood. In addition to not knowing the difference between it’s and its, the explanation gets a lot of things wrong, then closes on an eerily Panglossian note about the wonders that came out of the storm.

It sounds as if Malaka Maltby didn’t experience the stench that permeated the city after the flood waters receded. It was stinky, not sparkly. If the snowglobe were even vaguely realistic, it would depict floating, bloated bodies and smell like sewage and rotting seafood. Mmm, rancid shrimp.

I blame Mayor Landrieu and the boosterazzi for this horrid bit of killer kitsch. They have set a triumphalist, celebratory tone for what should be a solemn occasion. Are they celebrating fewer poors? Repeat after me: an estimated 1,800 people died and 200,000+ houses flooded. It was bloody, costly, wet, and smelly, not sparkly.

Back to bad “poetry” theatre:

This globe is a tribute for the world to see,
A remembrance of what once used to be.
The help I received for this project a rarity.
So much I’m donating some profits to charity.
And lastly, thank the good Lord above
For giving us back the N’awlins, the city we LOVE!

The cutesy spelling of New Orleans is an indication that these idiots are, more likely than not, post-K transplants. Only the late, great broadcaster Frank Davis could get away with that. But I suspect that Frank would have taken a dim view of this loathsome bit of killer kitsch.

It doesn’t matter whether the seller’s claim that he’s donating some of the profits to charity is true or not. There’s no excuse for disaster profiteering even if it’s ten years after the storm. Malaka Maltby and everyone who purchased this appalling bit of killer kitsch should be ashamed of themselves. What’s next? A 9/11 snowglobe complete with rubble and flying corpses?

If you’d like to leave some nasty comments about this disgusting bit of killer kitsch, feel free to post on their Facebook wall. I somehow doubt if they’ll get that either. Repeat after me: Hurricane Katrina and the Federal Flood were stinky, not sparkly.

Creeps like Malaka Maltby and Mitch Landrieu inspired my friend Laura Bergerol to create this image. I’ll give her the last word: