The Housing Bubble

assets count

Pre-screen tool: https://www.mybenefits.ny.gov/selfservice/

assets count ??

IMO, they will count also when social security benefits are means tested…

Whyoung - do “assets” count, of just “declared assets?” IOW, do you think that anybody there bothers to check if the system is gamed by the recipients?

When life gives you lemons squirt the juice in the eyes of your enemies.

Do unto others ….and move out quickly.

-Things that must be together to work, usually can’t be shipped together.

you guys are funny, but somehow I get the impression you’ll never be invited as a guest on Oprah.

I prefer:

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll spend the rest of his days on a pier getting smelly, sunburnt, and growing a beer gut.

(not necessarily a bad thing, BTW)

When anyone asks, “Why does this arch-conservative, obviously deranged and confused ‘cobaltblue’ keep coming back for more and more punishment?”, I can only reply, I thought I must deserve it, and so did they.

But, you know what, the HBB has some of the greatest minds, alive, in this day
! (Check it out, skeptics! Where were YOU when the SHTF???)

Too bad I’m not one of those “greatest minds”. No matter; please support Ben and this blog with a contribution, when, as, and if you can!

If you can’t laugh at yourself, laugh at someone else.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

After that, it’s time to find something else to do.

Much like trying to post here.

…and if you chop your feet off while playing with the lawn mower, don’t come running to me for help!

My sister’s old boss had a saying and practiced the saying:

“Why do the work yourself when you can pay someone else to do it.”

“Why do the work yourself when you can pay someone else to do it.”

“Because you want it done right”?
Is that an answer?

Although it’s true, when I think more about the subject, many things don’t need to have me be in charge and it still might possibly work out okay.
Although dam*ned it I’ll ever admit that.

Why go to the effort to ‘pick’ on someone here, Chip? Has this community really stooped so low?

Has this community really stooped so low?

Yes?
That would be a ‘yes’. In fact, I ’bout emitted some sort of fluid, I laughed so hard.
Thanks, Chip. Hahahaah!…

Oh, no! What’s this?
I guess I better go find a napkin, is all I can say….

Jimbo — That you???

“Recession losing steam” as if it were some sort of purposefully executed human initiative?

Ben B, you crack me up.

“Recession losing steam”

Are they going to tax steam ?

Water vapor is a greenhouse gas. Of course they will tax steam.

The train is not moving backward. It just seems that way like all train wrecks.

Well, I have to pipe up here and say it’s still a Runaway Train, with apologies to AC/DC of course

Ah, the magical “second half recovery!” which we’ve been waiting on since 2007… right.

Let’s keep on printing money and Bailing out and I’m sure everything will be fine.

Cool! Maybe it is a good time to start a small company. Is stimulus money available to startups?

The only things available for small companies are tax increases.

So… the IT company is a BIG company that services small companies? Come on, AZ - show (the rest of) us the money!

I run a small IT consulting company as well. I have no full time employees, but sub out work to 4 developers as needed. I will soon need a 5th as there is more work than we can handle right now and the pipeline is full for the next 6-9 months. Problem is everyone I know that could do the work is already working 50+ hours a week. I hate to hire someone I don’t know, but I may have to, either that or lose out on work.

Thanks for the info, Leigh. Hoz is certainly missed around here.

Maybe he’s busy going long the market though.

Well, when somebodys says this stuff, I think, ‘what am I, chopped liver?’

If you guys think you can remember this poster or that, I think of all my buddies from the days when only 10 people were posting here. We would greet each other in the comments section like it was a coffee shop:

Good morning Ben.

Good morning to you Ms Penelope.

But I like these lines from Kerouac about his real life friend and the hero of On the Road:

‘We’ve just been back and forth across the country several times in cars and now our adventures are over. We’re still great friends but we have to go into later phases of our lives.’

Awwww, Ben. Don’t be sad.

Good afternoon, Ben!

Well some of this is probably due to the fact that while fifty people saying “I told you so,” is somewhat satisfying, it isn’t as interesting as a dozen of us saying”They’re all CRAZY, I tell you, and I have the charts to prove it!”

Well Ben,

Your not chopped liver to me.

I’m like Olygal, I miss some of the old posters. I hope they are all okay and have moved on to bigger and better things.

I remember Melody and Goleta (and several others) and a night, in my “blinfancy,” when I ragged on Melody for posting too many times in one evening while she clearly was enjoying some great Cab. She was posting a lot of great links related to the day’s events. To this day, I regret that arrogant and unwarranted flame. It was in the first days that I ever posted or knew about blogs, much less was blessed to discover Ben’s.

Melody, babe, I apologize, squared.

I’m like Olygal, I miss some of the old posters. I hope they are all okay and have moved on to bigger and better things.

Shoots, SanFran! There is no ‘better’ than this, surely?
All I hope is, that they ain’t getting alien-probed on Mars right now.
(I mean, you know—unless they enjoy that sort of thing.)
And there is nothing,/i> wrong with that, if so.

I remember Melody and Goleta (and several others) and a night, in my “blinfancy,” when I ragged on Melody for posting too many times in one evening while she clearly was enjoying some great Cab.

Hmmm.
Chip, you know what? You must forgive yourself.
It’s not like these are easy subjects to discuss, the housing/credit bubble popping, devaluation of the USD, commodity craziness, rice-hoarding, running through the woods with torches, beans into peas…look, it’s crazy times, man!
So you gotta relax.

Here, have a Pacifico.
(hands him a virtual Pacifico )

I bet Melody and Gaviota are doing just fine somewhere else. Probably sharing casserole recipes.

Well Ben,

Your not chopped liver to me.

This could be a segue, but I don’t care. I LOVE liver. I often stop at the Safeways on Mud Bay and buy 3 tubs and then go home and cook them all in my cast-iron skillet.

*falls off chair with excitement, thinking of it *

Comment by Chip
2009-05-05 17:51:09
I remember Melody and Goleta (and several others) and a night, in my “blinfancy,” when I ragged on Melody for posting too many times in one evening while she clearly was enjoying some great Cab. She was posting a lot of great links related to the day’s events. To this day, I regret that arrogant and unwarranted flame. It was in the first days that I ever posted or knew about blogs, much less was blessed to discover Ben’s.

Melody, babe, I apologize, squared.
———————-

Chip,

I remember that night, and distinctly remember that Melody did not seem to take offense. As a matter of fact, she came back either later that night or the next morning to apologize because she was copying whole articles instead of just a few snippets with a link. That’s when she told us about the wine.

You’re one of the most gracious posters here, Chip.

RE: Retailers are not allowed to check ID vs. credit card name by their agreement with VISA/MC.

CCC~

So who eats the $6k involved with this felony theft?

Merchant or the bank?

They do all the time here in Colorado.

Hmm - well I was about to disagree with you, but looked it up and sure enough you’re right! E.g. MasterCard has a web page where you can report merchant violations - and one of the violations is if the merchant requires identification.

Wow. To be honest I’m surprised.

I would imagine that it’s probably not illegal (per se) for the merchant to *ask* for your ID, though if you refuse they’re apparently not allowed to reject your purchase or require you to pay cash.

It’s amazing that the small amount of customer satisfaction from not having to show ID is in the credit cards’ companies’ better interest than trying to reduce the losses from fraud. That’s akin to how most at most stores if you walk out the front and the security alarm goes off - now they pretty much just let you go. I’m amazed at that too.

So who eats the $6k involved with this felony theft?

Merchant or the bank?

Generally the merchant (what I found from doing some google searching anyhow).

Which IMO stinks, though it is what it is. The merchants agree to it so they don’t lose a lot of customers that like to use CC. It’s a tradeoff.

RE: The merchants agree to it so they don’t lose a lot of customers that like to use CC.

Ugh…

Someone scooted out of my joint with $6k of fraudently
obtained merchandise; and I was the one taking the hit because of card issuer policy, I’d be looking for a cash biz real quick.

The interesting question I have in my own mind…is the crime big enough to warrant the cops doing anything.

Apple has the purchase on surveillance camera, and the gym has a computerized log-book for check in with pretty strict monitoring of access.

Will a cop set down his donut for a $6k nonviolent crime?

Google that one, packman! (laugh)

That’s stunning…

Why in the world would CC companies not allow retailers to check ID? If they can’t check ID, then the CC companies should be liable for ALL losses from stolen cards.

We write “MUST CHECK I.D.” on the signature lines of all our cards, instead of signature. Supposedly, that’s not allowed/legal, but someone at the bank told us to do it if we are worried about CC theft.

I just don’t understand WHY people would be offended by having to show other forms of ID. I’M the one being protected from the hassle of having to dispute fraudulent charges.

Why don’t merchants offer cash discounts (like 5% or so)? This discount would be offset by the reduction in fees paid to CC companies. No CC fraud for Merchant to get stuck with. Consumers with cash wins, Merchant wins, bank gets screwed out of their fee (bonus). Or do the CC companies forbid the Merchants from offering cash discounts as part of their agreement too?

Why don’t merchants offer cash discounts (like 5% or so)?

I believe that many merchant agreements disallow this. Can any of y’all small business folks back this up?

Still, some places do offer cash discounts…just ask sometime.

We have a winner.

“But I’m cheered up a bit to think that you obviously associate with cool people”

Obviously–I hang out here, don’t I?

Yar. Solid.

You’ld think that at least they would thank you and say something like “its on us”.

Dennis,

I had the same experience when we went to a rather expensive dinner at the Disneyland Resort (Main Street Disney).

As I save all my receipts and match them up with the statements, I noticed this one had never been processed. When I called to let them know, they said, “so why are you calling us, why would you want to pay if we didn’t charge you?”

They had no desire to straighten out the transaction **in their favor** and acted almost annoyed.

These companies must be making a ton of money off the rest of their transactions, since they don’t care about the money that falls between the cracks.

For some reason, there was a local gas station whose charges were not being deducted from accounts at our credit union. FOR MONTHS. When the glitch was resolved and the charges posted, several people started bouncing checks.

You can register any Apple product by serial number (not everyone does). Not sure if they have an institutional policy for a look-up in event of a theft or loss, however.

It would really suck to amass $100K-ish worth of student debt only to face an uncertain job market. (Maybe your friends went to state schools, but they prob’ly still face a sizable loan debt.)

And they have the dubious pleasure of studying for and passing the bar in their state(s) of choice before that law degree is worth anything substantial in the marketplace.

I was considering going back to get a law degree a few years ago…software engineering just doesn’t do “it” for me, and I thought lawyering, since it requires a lot of the same personality traits, might be a good fit.

Decided it didn’t makes sense on paper…I’d give up 3 years of my current earnings, plus have to pay for tuition. At a cost of roughly $400k, it just didn’t make sense.

Looking like a good decision in retrospect.

ET, in 2003 I took the LSAT and applied to a few schools. the friend I referred to above has been a lifelong bud of mine, and he told me not to do it, he also told all of my other friends not to do it. Nobody listened — it’s the ultimate “liberal arts” degree.

A lot of my friends went into law, and hardly any of them had a reason beyond, “I’ve got nothing else going on…”

Every lawyer I ever met told me not become a lawyer, but I did anyway. I’ve no regrets about getting the education (my then employer paid 90% of the tuition and books), but the lawyers were right. Perhaps had I not had a previous career I would still be a lawyer today, but there are much easier ways to make a buck than that route. And there’s much less drinking required at the end of the day.

Two of my friends are/were pre-law students…they took the LSAT last fall and were all ready to apply until their scores came back. They’ve always have claimed that it’s not worth going to law school unless you go to one of the top 20 schools because otherwise you’ll never be paid enough to recoup the cost. Well, apparently neither did as well on the LSAT as they’d hoped so they didn’t even bother to apply this year; now they’re out trying to find jobs with political science degrees…

The practice of law is dishonest, stressful, and boring. It stopped being a profession years ago - its pure business now - milking as much money as possible out of the clients and the system.

I come from a family with a fair number of lawyers, and growing up, I just assumed that’s what I’d do as a career — liberal arts school, law degree, find a legal niche, and work, work, work.

I took the LSATs and had a stack of applications, but ultimately I just couldn’t do it. I don’t regret it. In the late ’90s, I worked for a big DC law firm for a short while in their tech services department and really disliked it, though the people in my department were nice enough.

One of my sisters ended up going to law school and worked as a law school administrator and international human rights attorney for a while. Now she’s quite happy to be a stay-at-home mom who does occasional legal translation work for the UN and OAS. But she still has all those private school loans to pay off.

It would appear to me (this is musing from afar, of course), that the legal profession is one where your work can line up with your morals/values. For most jobs, that opportunity simply isn’t there. I really can’t do anything as a software developer to advance personal freedoms, individual liberties, fight “the man”, etc…that’s attractive about law.

Of course, that’s not where the money is in law, either.

A lot of my friends went into law, and hardly any of them had a reason beyond, “I’ve got nothing else going on…”

I went to law school in my early 40’s to pursue being a patent attorney. My engineering career in defense electronics vanished with the ending of the Cold War so I had to do something. I found law school a fun 3 year vacation from work and made some decent money after getting out.

But too many engineers got the same idea and now even the Patent Bar has too many practicioners. I’m glad to be retired.

Paging Polly: she’s an attorney who seems to enjoy her work, and is a good person besides.

But I was a classic “go to law school because I can’t figure out what else to do.” I really loved law school - that was a bad sign. A lot of lawyers who love being lawyers hate law school. Then I was in private practise at a big firm and learned a lot but wasn’t really happy except that I was paying off my loans pronto ($70K in just under 3 years). Then I was at another big firm with no loans left and realized that the money wasn’t enough to motivate me to be bored like that when I didn’t have a huge debt to pay off. But I did save a lot of money and go on a few nice vacations. Then I was unemployed for a while and was brilliantly happy volunteering at various things.

Then I got a job at a big multinational company. Back at the law firms we used to think that those were the sweet jobs. But my boss was a jerk and I wasn’t all that happy. Then I got laid off because of the recession after 9/11 and I refused to go after a job in a hedge fund because I thought they were nasty.

Then I got a wonderful job in the government and I get to do projects that cause Congressmen to actually think twice before they make decisions based on anecdotal evidence and discuss the proper application of existing laws to new and intersting situations with my clever colleagues. And I get to use the stuff I learned in the other jobs to make good arguments for my position on things. And the fact that I know about finance and health care and a few tiny little bits of economics and all sorts of other stuff matters to my job. And that makes me happy.

Oh, and REhobbyist? Thank you very much for the “good person.” I do try. Sometimes it is harder than others. Like this afternoon. When I had to file for reimbursement for my travel expenses. I believe I used some unlady like language. And that was before the fax machine went all wonky. Then I really got irked.

Great to hear you love your job, and that you get to do some good for our society, Polly.

It’s nice to know we have people like you working on behalf of our govt.

Yeah, I worked in a legal library for a short period, and while STUDYING the law sounded interesting, most jobs practicing it sounded boring as hell. It was sometimes amusing when we got newly minted attourneys asking us to serach Lexis for “everyting on (blarg)” “do you want to limit that, there’s alot of material on (blarg)” “No, I need everyghing!” “Okay, come back later.” Several thousand dollars, and a box of flatfold paper later they could be persuaded to search on (blarg) AND (bleem).

They get a third the salary if you only count the base. But they get paid for overtime. That can make one heck of a difference.

We used to have paralegals that would volunteer to work holidays or weekends. Because of overtime abuse, there is now a very strict sign-off procedure (e.g., no paralegal can do overtime unless a partner signs-off on it in writing, and if there are other paralegals that are slow even partner sign-off is questioned).

Thanks for your thoughts. Very much appreciated.

You haven’t been watching HGTV long enough. Backyard redos often include tvs.

“Backyard redos often include tvs.”

And two friends (one with a truck) who will remove a tree for a six pack and some hot dogs.

They’re not mere back yards, they’re outdoor ROOMS, doncha know. Complete with outdoor furniture, rugs, lamps and kitchens. The catalogs photograph them in their brand-new, pristine condition. What they don’t show is what those ‘rooms’ look like after a thunderstorm with big wind blowing dirt, tree branches and assorted junk all over the now-soggy ‘room’. And then, that’s followed by a hatching of mosquitos.

I LOVE the Great Outdoors. Really.

I LOVE the Great Outdoors. Really.

Yes, me too, but not when it’s stupid and has teevee’s and lamps in it.

he could always use the $50k as seed capital for a loan shark business.

Just sayin’

“So they tack on another 10 cents in interest.”

Pay it in pennies. Serves them right.

“…So they tack on another 10 cents in interest.”

Psst, don’t sweat the small stuff…sent them a Thank You card, piss on it just before you mail it.

Old Puerto Rico saying: “Don’t get mad…get even!”

I don’t get this, once you’ve sent the last PAYMENT in, there IS no interest right? This isn’t money that you OWE them, this is money that you’re paying them to perform a service (recordation and sending you your promisary note). How can you owe them interest on payment for a service that they haven’t provided to you yet?

I got one of those papers… a property tax bill asking for $1300 every 6 months. You see, you don’t own the property, you pay rent, in my case almost $216/month.

The fixed costs of living are way to high… but soon I will have it down to.

1) Property Tax $215/month
2) Internet $55/month
3) Car Tax/Insurance $100/month
4) Home Owners Insurance $100/month

Unfortunately, even with a minimum wage job, there would be almost no money left over for food.

Well once there’s no mortgage, you’re CHOOSING to pay homeowner’s insurance.

Wow! In keeping with my motto for the Year…

“Take encouragement where you can -find- it!” this is the best news I’ve heard in weeks! Good on ya’ Dave!

To be truthful though, even after 10 years of paying on the same mortgage, the wife and I had hardly made a dent? Even if we ‘did’ convert to a 15 yr. I’d still be 60-something when we paid it off.

Sorry guys, it’s just not even a priority for us any more? If rents were going through the roof ( and they might ) I’d be sh!tting my pants. What ‘is’ important to us would be having our 2nd/vac. home paid off! If rents ‘do’ spiral out of control, we can always operate out of there. At this point, I’ll accept CASH ( with proper ID )

I agree. I’ve had the thrill of paying off car loans and student loans, but I can’t see ever paying off a home loan (unless I’m enjoying the good life in a $100K mobile home in Briny Breezes). Right now we have the assets to pay off a mortgage, but I like having that chunk of change versus a paid off hunk of dirt.

Nine years left baby, with my refi to a 15 year in 2003, my house is due to be paid off the year before I’m eligible for early retirement.

Oh, the title would be framed, and hung on the wall right next to the embroidered “Home Sweet Home” sign. Or, as we referred to our house for the first 7 or 8 years, the Little House From Hell.

Gotcha. Very true. Dante also had a special place for the hypocrites and it was way, way down there. Although I don’t think that an ad hominem attack should defeat an entire scientific argument, I was a little more than a little pissed off when the size of Gore’s house and electric bill was divulged. I like to see righties and lefties called on the carpet.

Peraps Al was just living the words of a SubGenius preacher that I heard once, “I don’t practice what I preach… because I’m not the kind of man I’m preachin’ to!”

MrBubble

“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” That’s the very height of profound when you’re in High School.

Guess you didn’t get the reference - I was referring to the band Rush (from Canada). They’re awesome in many ways (I’m a big prog rock fan), including having a strong libertarian theme in their music. I believe the main lyricist Neal Peart is a big Ayn Rand fan in fact.

Packman, a good friend of mine and former bandmate is one of those Rush Superfans who travels to shows all over North America, has scores of fan-recorded shows, has some of Peart’s sticks from a show, etc., etc. He was recently photographed for a Chicago Tribune article in his basement surrounded by a bunch of Rush swag and his somewhat Peartian drum kit (though to be fair, he added pieces on to make it look more Peartian for the shoot).

At any rate, it was only a week or two ago he sat me down to listen to the (Rand-inspired) 2112 in its vinyl glory. Hadn’t heard it in years. (The band pictures on 2112 always make me laugh, too.)

…and great weather!

…and Garbage Plates!

I was in Buffalo last week and drove to Rochester to check out my old haunts from college intern days. Unfortunately they closed at 8 and I got there at 815. Denied. No plate for me!

BTW, I’d forgotten how beautiful rural NY is. 15 miles outta Rochester and it gets very rural. The stretch between Buffalo and Rochester is very nice.

“BTW, I’d forgotten how beautiful rural NY is.”

Correction: You’ve forgotten how beatiful rural NY is for three months of the year.

Feh. Put on some layers, strap on some snowshoes or x-country skis and get out there.

Blech. Be my guest SNS. I lived it for 34 years.

LOL. Yeah, its easy for me to say. In most cases, I drive to snow if I want it. Otherwise, if it snows here it rarely lasts more than a week or so.

PS - where do you live now exeter? I know you’ve thought about moving to C. Oregon. If cold and snow isn’t palatable you might think twice about that.

SNS, OR high desert is still a consideration. Earning a living and the cold there are the two drawbacks but I don’t think the winters there are remotely close to the misery I was born into in VT. If I’m mistaken about the short winters in OR, please say so.

Understood. Probably in the same way I love WestPawlet and Wells, VT and miss being able to drop in the homestead on a moments notice.

“It’s the economy stupid” has never been more accurate of an expression than now. It just gets worse there.

Hey, Ex, now I’m confused — where do you live? (I thought VT)

Downstate NY. Work in Westchester, currently reside in Dutchess within walking distance to CT border…… at the moment but subject to change, possibly very soon.

The suspension of Habeas Corpus IS Constitutional. See Art. I sec. 9 para. 2.

“The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless with in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Clearly the US Civil War was a “case of rebellion or invasion.”

But Lincoln didn’t suspend Habeas Corpus in the south - he suspended it in the north, in response to graft protests.

The argument is whether such protests would be considered an act of rebellion or not - certainly other graft protests haven’t been though, at least not that I’m aware.

I know you meant draft protests, but graft protests fits the current times so well.

LOL - yeah I meant to say “conscription” actually (= draft) - not sure where I came up with graft - Freudian slip I guess. I didn’t really know the political meaning of graft until looking it up just now, at least as I recall (an early senior-moment I guess).

I’ve been having early senior-moments since middle school. So don’t feel bad.

Well I’m not sure I agree. Art. 1 sec. 8 para. 5 gives Congress the power “to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin….” Sounds like they have some power to set up something like the Fed if they desire.

You’re getting the functions of the Mint and the Federal Reserve confused. They are fundamentally different.

“regulate the Value thereof” refers to denominations of coins - e.g. 1 ounce of gold is worth $20 and such; again a mint function not a Federal Reserve function.

Actually technically the value regulation I believe is a function of Congress not the mint. Either way - it’s constitutionally *not* a function of the Federal Reserve.

You’ve fallen into the MSM trap of concluding that everyone who holds religious beliefs wants to force them governmentally on everyone else.

During the last election cycle, everyone from George Bush on down to Bobby Jindal, on the subject of “universal” health care, said something along the effect of, “Medical care should be between a patient and a doctor. The government should not be involved.”

What they avoided saying was, “…unless of course, the health care in question is against our religious supporters beliefs, i.e., abortion, birth control, assisted suicide…”

This need to speak out of two sides of the mouth, one side to the moderate masses the other side to the religious zealots, is a hallmark of the modern republican politician.

Has nothing to do with the MSM, the founding fathers or the “dumbing down of America”, and everything to do with Karl Rove’s genius in exploiting the religious right to oppose the “godless” democrats.

It worked great until it didn’t.

The “Religious Right” consists almost entirely of Protestant Fundamentalists and Evangelicals. Neither group has a problem with birth control, as long as it is practiced by married couples.

They also rarely have a problem with divorce and remarriage, even though it is forbidden in the New Testament (where it is equated to adultery).

You forgot gay rights.

I never said anything about the Republican party - you did. I was addressing your general assertion that someone couldn’t support the Bible and the Constitution, which applies to Dems also BTW - or didn’t you notice that Obama goes to a Christian church?

So either:

A) Obama and many Dems are hypocrites in that they go to Christian churches but don’t support the Bible, or

B) Your generality of the Republican party - or anybody for that matter - being unable to support the Constitution because they support the Bible is false.

Which is it?

I haven’t seen any mention of abortion, birth control, or euthanasia in either the Bible or in the Constitution. So I don’t see how any of these have anything to do with your statement about said hypocrisy.

I was addressing your general assertion that someone couldn’t support the Bible and the Constitution, which applies to Dems also BTW - or didn’t you notice that Obama goes to a Christian church?

Point taken.

All I was trying to point out is that the more activist religious people tend to support the Republicans and it is they who think that the Constitution is secondary to the bible.

Doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, but I cannot remember an instance of a Democrat saying that the Constitution needed to be amended to be more in line with “God’s law”.

As far as gay rights go, I don’t care what consenting adult you sleep with - but the the fear of two people of the same sex sharing a life has been more of a boon to the Republicans (because of religion) than it has to the Dems.

Bible - same sex bad
Constitution - All created equal

I see a distinct conflict there and it was ultimately disastrous for the Repubs to use the Christians like they did because eventually unavoidable incompatibilities like this caught up with them.

My opinion, anyway.

Neither group has a problem with birth control, as long as it is practiced by married couples.

Who was it that George W Bush was trying to satisfy when he passed the “right of conscience” rule?

The founding fathers were deists more than anything else and they were thoroughly steeped in the humanist precepts of the enlightenment.

They obviously knew enough about dogmatic religion to insist on the separation of Church and State which is far more than I can say about the current crop of republicans.

Of course, most democrats these days are almost equally idiotic although they have yet to elevate anyone at the same level of irrationality as Michelle Bachman to the national stage.

I reiterate, YET.

and it is working!

TESTIFY.

(Hahahaha! Get it? )

The history of theocracic rule and a quick look at the current theocratic states will tell you everything you need to know about religious rule.

Logic,science, and debate are trumped by a loud race to the most fundamental positions. This in order to prove that you are the most religious and thus deserve to rule over all others. Once in power your enemies are quickly dispensed with by calling them infadels, heratics, or sinners. You can hide your sins by constantly calling on people to rise up against the great SATAN. Once in power it is important to dumb down the population so book burning and religious indoctrination instead of science become the norm.

Every decade the percentage of atheists in America out of the total population slowly increases. In 1990 it was 8%. In 2000 it was 14%. The latest survey showed 15%. I anticipate 30% in twenty years.

It will be a significant change, and a very welcome one in politics, since the backers of free enterprise will not be sidetracked by pleasing the Bible thumpers.

It could be Democrats versus Libertarians and not Democrats versus Republicans. The party that allows the most individual rights will trump the other party.

I hope you’re right. But I fear it will be Dems vs Socialists for who can give Americans the most free stuff while taxing the “rich” the most.

Who might we replace Bernanke with should he actually be ousted?

Please post a link to the documentation (if you have one) and I will take a look at it, too.

For some reason, I am unable to get the link to post. There is a “Methodology” tab on the site with lots of info to wade through.

Oh, wait! It was an accent thingie!

NOW I get it! Hahaah!
…. What a nut you are. *laughs more *
And to think I imagined you in with a matador cape and a rose clenched between your teeth.

Do you get paid for that?

Well, I haven’t looked at the “golden shower” services but, in theory, yes!

In practice so far though ….

If I were a woman I would have a few beers and mosey on over to the World Egg Bank, egg donors get $5,000 to $5,500 per donation. Which tells me the chicken came last. I have never seen a $5,000 chicken.

“If I were a woman I would have a few beers and mosey on over to the World Egg Bank, egg donors get $5,000 to $5,500 per donation.”

LOL. Does seem tempting when you put it like that. Unfortunately, donating eggs requires lots of annoyances, like avoidance of alcohol, daily injections leading up to the removal surgery, and abstinence unless you want to take a chance on becoming the next octomom. I did it once, but only because it was for a friend I knew well. And there was no compensation involved. A mere $5k doesn’t cover it by a long shot, in my opinion. And this isn’t even counting the moral issue of whether you want to sell your DNA (of course, guys also have that issue, so that’s not unique to selling eggs).

AC,

Very true. It’s not at all the same as a man’s donation.

You also have to take a pretty gnarly drug that stimulates ovlulation, no?

$5,000 doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I want to get the clubman as I have a wee kid in an infant car seat, and have plans on aquiring another, but no more than 2. Seems like the mini would be a fun car and just the right size!