Bits Bucket for December 14, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here. And check out Chomp, Chomp, Chomp by a regular poster!
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Zillow names Sacramento in the top 10 seller’s markets!
This likely isn’t news to anyone who has tried to buy a house in the Sacramento area, but the capital finished third in Zillow’s new list of top sellers’ markets nationwide.
The capital finished behind red hot San Jose and San Francisco, and ahead of Las Vegas, Phoenix and Riverside.
Zillow defined sellers’ markets as areas with low inventory, houses that sell for more than asking price and where homes are sold quickly.
Buyers’ markets have more houses for sale, steeper price cuts and houses that linger longer on the market. The top buyers’ markets were Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and New York.
Zillow compiled the lists by comparing sales prices to asking prices in the 30 largest metro areas, calculating how many days it took to sell houses and the percentage of homes that took price discounts. The strongest sellers’ markets were regions hardest hit by the housing bust, and where investors are active.
people must be picking up some nice deals in some fine neighborhoods of sacramento. I wonder if oak park is booming again?
Ha, they say you can’t polish a turd, but it got polished and sold in 2006!
There’s a bunch of new construction going on in Oak Park right as we speak. It absolutely defies all logic. There’s a giant luxocondopartment building going up at the corner of Broadway and Martin Luther King that I’m sure will be a destination for all the upscale 20 somethings in town. Who needs the nightlife and the arts scene of Midtown when you can have The Hood right at your doorstep?
Personal anecdote: Some friends of mine foolishly bought in what is a really bad part of town a year ago (for really dumb reasons) and recently decided to sell. House was on the market 1 day and got multiple offers. Sold in less than a week (to an investor), and it made them a profit. I’m glad they got out of there, but that sh*tbox should not have made them any sort of profit. You couldn’t pay me to live in that ‘hood.
My god, it’s like 2005 all over again.
Recall that 2005 was followed by 2006. A very different year for the housing market. By that time, the end of the bubble was firmly in the public lexicon.
I do have a feeling this is a set-up for the next leg down in this mess. As has been noted by other posters, Sacramento does have relatively few good jobs, and at some point economic fundamentals have to come back into play…I hope. For the time being, I’m content to rent and sit this out, even if it’s for a few more years.
Sacramento has relatively few good jobs and the ones that are there are largely gov’t related. This can’t last forever, esp. with the state of CA in pretty bad financial shape.
Some people never learn.
Sutter Health just announced moving 1,000 jobs to Sacramento to consolidate its medical call center businesses.
6,000 jobs were created in Sacramento last year.
None of this counts the jobs that are off the radar screen, which is a greater percentage than ever before as people telecommute and have small independant businesses.
Some people never learn.
Call center? Haha. The future belongs to lucky duckies.
which is a greater percentage than ever before as people telecommute and have small independant businesses.
aka, the underemployed/part-time hoping for full-time work.
Medical call centers; can you imagine?
Caller: Help! I think I’m having an infarct!
Voice at call center: Thank you for calling. Para continuar en espanola prensa numero uno…. To ensure customer quality, this call may be recorded. Your call is very important to us. In order that we may better direct your call please listen to the following menu. Please listen carefully as our menu has been changed…. For heart attacks and immuno-disaster, please press one. For….
hot summer, gray foggy winters, not for me.
6 of the top 10 are California markets.
Groundhog Day.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/my-family-business/brothers-buy-house-teens-now-real-estate-superstars-164740360.html
I’m off to judge the current economic situation in the pubs and clubs of Manchester (some times stepping off planet Earth is just what you need
). In the unlikely event I run into any important economic data and stay sober enough I’ll report back. Have a happy Christmas and a happy New Year, just in case my liver doesn’t make it.
Don’t have KFC with the Happy Mondays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvS1jeZftBw
;0
Hmmmm…beer goggles for houses.
It makes sense.
Turns a crack shack into a beautiful craftsman style home with walk-in closets. Until you wake up the next morning and wonder where you are…
…and you wonder how you ended up getting f-d with something so ugly…
Try not to get stabbed whilst you’re at it. Happy holidays.
“Have a happy Christmas and a happy New Year, just in case my liver doesn’t make it.”
Take it easy on that liver. We enjoy your posts too much for you to slow down over liver issues…
C — R — A — T — E — R
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
V V V V V V V V V V V V V V
you are missing the boat again are you?
That sinking ship you’re on?
you gonna rent the rest of your life?
Rental rates are half the cost of buying at current inflated asking prices of resale housing.
not sure where your at but rental rates in my area are not half the price of a housing payment. place across the street is renting for ~ 2000.00 a month. payment on that home ~ 1600.00.
Get on the gravy train my friend.
“rental rates in my area are not half the price of a housing payment.”
Nonsense. Rental rates are a fraction of buying at current inflated asking prices of resale housing.
Why would you misrepresent that truth?
azdude, you are mistaken, Cratering GH (RAL, etc.) is not a renter…he owns a house (according to him).
not sure where your at but rental rates in my area are not half the price of a housing payment. place across the street is renting for ~ 2000.00 a month. payment on that home ~ 1600.00.
Don’t bother. He’s a one trick pony.
It may be cheaper to rent in many places, but not all. 2 bedroom SFH are renting for $2300 and up in San Francisco.
We bought in September and my monthly P&I is $1600.
Now that we have unpacked and settled in, I couldn’t be happier. Paying it off before I retire is the plan, and at my age I couldn’t “wait it out” any longer. We had been waiting to buy since 2002. Not as an investment, but because we needed a stable place to live.
Beautiful garden, view of Twin Peaks, nice neighbors, small enough that we will won’t have a need to downsize when the kids move out.
Feel free to tell me I’ve made a huge mistake when the price of renting AND buying craters in San Francisco. In the meanwhile, don’t bother Dust Grinder, my joshua tree ext. blocks your posts.
Feel free to tell me I’ve made a huge mistake when the price of renting AND buying craters in San Francisco.’
I bet you are glad to be rid of your crazy landlord
I bet you are glad to be rid of your crazy landlord
Good riddance.
No more “inspections”. Or rent increases delivered on December 24th (no sh!t, that was what got us looking to buy last winter). And we started fostering dogs, which is something I always wanted to do. Found homes for the last two, someone coming tonight to adopt the one we have now.
“…view of Twin Peaks…”
I have a burned-in image of rolling fog with the Sutro’s triple antennae poking through the top. I used to be a SF window washer in my younger days.
Different Twin Peaks — best theme song ever…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7d0Lm_31BE
Rental Watch is a Liar.
“Get on the gravy train my friend.”
Where have I heard this before? We must be nearing the top again.
I find the key to renting is, renting something nice. Then spend your weekends surfing, mtn biking or traveling vs home maintenance… you will never look back. Invest in good companies, energy… get your 7-12% return and be happy. Yes, you can still paint your room tan with white trim. I have had 3 homes, started in 1989. Now I rent. Been there, done that. Yes, I made a killing during the bubble, good luck seeing that again. What happens to home when rates are back at 5%? 7%?
Peace.
Thank you, and Merry Christmanzahanuhkolstice to you, Avacado!
What were the drivers which drove house prices to bubble levels? Lenders / loan originators without repayment risk, profiting from selling bad loans. House prices are directly tied to how much one can borrow. And the amounts borrowed skyrocketed.
Prices started to crash, but what stopped them? Massive government intervention.
Going forward, what would be the drivers of house prices? Another bad debt bubble? Inflation? Population growth? There’s the drag of student debt on top of all of this.
While the Fed actions are certainly threatening inflation, and they are making noises like they want another debt bubble (see Bernanke saying that lending standards are too tight, and that FHA is going to require a bailout), is it really sustainable?
The last time we had high inflation, half of the Senate was voted out. We have more retirees today. And they vote. And while Japan was able to do ZIRP for a long time, they did it in a deflationary environment, actually increasing their standard of living. We are doing ZIRP in an inflationary environment, eroding the standard of living. We’ll see how long that lasts.
I saw a quote: “The Fed won’t determine the Fed’s exit. The market will determine the Fed’s exit.” True? Perhaps.
“Prices started to crash, but what stopped them? Massive government intervention.”
Massive government intervention, but also private capital stepping in on a cash-basis. Something like $400 Billion of homes sales were completed last year on an all-cash basis. The second piece (cash buyers stepping in) is at least an argument that prices didn’t just “start to crash” but that they actually crashed in those markets where cash buyers are active.
It is REALLY difficult to say such things about coastal markets, or markets where slow foreclosure processes have distorted the clearing process, but in many of the hardest hit markets in non-judicial states (Nevada, AZ, inland CA), it is hard to say that prices DIDN’T crash.
Prices here came back to about 2003 prices. It was enough of a drop to allow us to be able to buy (coupled with low rates).
It was not the crash I had been hoping and waiting for, but renting the rest of my life or waiting until my 60’s to buy a house had never been part of my plan.
I am reminded of many friends who waited for the perfect time to have kids, and the next thing you know they are in the mid 40’s and it’s too late.
Life is short and there’s only so much time to play the waiting game, unless waiting is dependent on a guaranteed outcome. By 2006 many of us were convinced that waiting was a no-brainer. Today, not so much.
I am still here on HBB because I like the banter and learn a lot here, but I personally am glad to be out of the waiting game - is it the right time - where should I live - should I rent or own deliberations. Personally, it was emotionally and psychologically draining. I have roots here, I like being settled, and I would rather pay for shelter by renting money from the bank than paying rent to a landlord. Either way, I have to pay every month…
“…but also private capital stepping in on a cash-basis…”
Bingo. That’s what’s driven the market here. Right or wrong people are starting to pay bubbly prices again.
I didn’t think private capital stepped in until the massive government intervention fix was in.
From what I saw, private capital stepped in only once investors became more comfortable with illiquidity, believed homes were trading below replacement cost, and saw a way to extract cash flow from the assets.
I know Dust Grinder will disagree with my second point, but I had a conversation with the housing adviser for a large collection of capital (billions upon billions) a little while back…his view was that when you add the cost of land, infrastructure, and vertical construction, replacement cost exceeded the current home values…this was a giant green checkmark in the eyes of his client (the fund) when considering the home rental strategy.
“I know Dust Grinder will disagree with my second point”
I’ll be awaiting his response not to find out whether he disagrees with you, but to see whether or not he uses the word “liar”.
I would rather pay for shelter by renting money from the bank than paying rent to a landlord. Either way, I have to pay every month…”
But as a renter you are not tied down, responsible for the roof and damage of an earthquake (CA). Renting a good house, is fine. Owning one is fine too, but you wont get rich off either these days. DOnt fool yourself.
“Massive government intervention, but also private capital stepping in on a cash-basis.”
Smart money jumps in while bailouts are in play, then dumps the asset before the inevitable post-bailout hangover drives the next leg down in prices.
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2012-12-13 15:43:46
Boy oh boy! Amazing isn’t it? Silence from the legacy media on this stuff.
Yea. A few guys yelling N..gg…r.. is more of a big deal than an entire party pushing coded racism…
Republicans tune in to coded racism
Romney and Ryan are not the only Republican politicians guilty of it: we’ve heard others refer to Obama as “the food stamps President” and the “entertainer in chief”, both of which play on deep-seated cultural stereotypes about African Americans as government-dependent but jolly minstrels….
Comment by ecofeco
2012-12-13 18:04:59
Darn facts.
Rio`s article was from was from…
Chloe Angyal
Chloe Angyal is an Australian writer who is based in New York City. She is an editor at Feministing.com, and her work has been published in The Guardian, The Atlantic and The Age. She is currently working on her first book, about romantic comedies.
Here is some of Chloe`s other mainstream stuff.
Chloe Angyal
‘The feminist agenda … encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practise witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.
Chloe Angyal
Handsome, yes, but Ryan won’t win women’s votes
Chloe Angyal
Mitt Romney’s running mate likes policies that are strikingly regressive.
Chloe Angyal
Abortion politics for export
Chloe Angyal Australians’ love of things American must not extend to a growing assault in the US on women’s reproductive rights.
Comment by ecofeco
2012-12-13 10:11:50
Anyone who uses Breitbart as a reference has no credibility.
Really? But Chloe Angyal is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me someone we`re not allowed to mention anymore.
Forward!
Rob Parker On RG3: ESPN ‘First Take’ Host Asks If Robert Griffin III Is A ‘Cornball Brother’
The Huffington Post |
By Chris Greenberg
Posted: 12/13/2012 5:45 pm EST
Rob Parker managed to turn Stephen A. Smith into the voice of reason on “First Take” on Thursday. This unexpected development occurred after Parker asked his fellow panelists on ESPN’s debate program if Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is “a brother or is he a cornball brother?”
Even Skip Bayless — no stranger to introducing race into conversations about Griffin — had to ask “What does that mean?”
“Well, he’s black, he kind of does his thing. But he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us,” Parker answered Bayless. “He’s kind of black. But he’s not really the guy you’d really want to hang out with because he’s off to do something else.”
Parker’s questions come one day after Griffin answered questions about the relationship between his race and his career and identity.
“For me, you don’t ever want to be defined by the color of your skin,” Griffin said on Wednesday, via Tom Corbett of USA Today Sports. “You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I’ve tried to go out and do.”
Parker seemed to have taken Griffin’s comments about transcending race as a repudiation of it. Asked again, what he was talking about and why he was interested, Parker went on.
“Well, because I want to find out about him. I don’t know, because I keep hearing these things,” replied Parker, again implying that he was merely voicing concerns that were already being discussed. “We all know he has a white fiancee. There was all this talk about he’s a Republican, which, there’s no information at all. I’m just trying to dig deeper as to why he has an issue.”
In his quest to discover why RG3 “has an issue,” it became increasingly likely that Parker has one with RG3. In a moment that may have revealed how Parker judges authenticity, he reversed course when Bayless asked about Griffin’s hairstyle.
“Now that’s different. To me, that’s very urban, Parker begins, later adding. “Wearing braids is … you’re a brother. You’re a brother if you have braids on.”
Once Parker was done, Smith was asked to weigh in. To his credit, he tried to bring a dose of professionalism to the conversation.
WATCH VIDEO ABOVE
“Well first of all let me say this: I’m uncomfortable with where we just went. RG3, the ethnicity, the color of his fiancee is none of our business. It’s irrelevant,” Smith told his “First Take” cohorts. “He can live his life any way he chooses. The braids that he has in his hair, that’s his business, that’s his life. I don’t judge someone’s blackness based on those kind of things. I just don’t do that. I’m not that kind of guy.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/13/rob-parker-robert-griffin-race-first-take_n_2295726.html - - Cached -
Is that a dog whistle I hear?
To me, that sounds more like a bull horn telling the public that RG III has escaped the plantation.
Aha! Thank you! I couldn’t hear them. But now I understand the theme of the post: Jethro’s blowing all the dog whistles!
“Republicans tune in to coded racism”
“For me, you don’t ever want to be defined by the color of your skin,” Griffin said on Wednesday, via Tom Corbett of USA Today Sports. “You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I’ve tried to go out and do.”
“Well, he’s black, he kind of does his thing. But he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us,” Parker answered Bayless.
In a moment that may have revealed how Parker judges authenticity, he reversed course when Bayless asked about Griffin’s hairstyle.
“Now that’s different. To me, that’s very urban, Parker begins, later adding. “Wearing braids is … you’re a brother. You’re a brother if you have braids on.”
lol
Here’s a dog whistle for ya:
DAY-O! Deedaydaydeedaydaydeedayday! Take-a de white mon and lock ‘em all up!
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/12/14/harry-belafonte-msnbc-criticized-over-jailing-republicans-remarks/
“For me, you don’t ever want to be defined by the color of your skin,” Griffin said on Wednesday, via Tom Corbett of USA Today Sports. “You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I’ve tried to go out and do.”
someone says this and he is automatically assumed to be a republican?
tells you something about democrats.
tells you something about democrats.
Not all democrats. Just the professional democrats and white liberals.
Parker’s diatribe mentions Griffin’s ‘white fiance’ and ‘talk of him being Republican,’
By Daniel O’leary / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, December 13, 2012, 9:26 PM
“Why is that your question?” the host asked Parker.
“Because that’s how I - I want to find out about him. I don’t know because I keep hearing these things. We all know he has a white fiance. There was all this talk about he’s a Republican. There’s no information at all - I’m just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue. Because we did find out with Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods was like, ‘I got black skin, but don’t call me black.’ People got a little wondering about him early on.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/espn-commentator-racially-charged-comments-rg3-article-1.1219891 - -
“Not all democrats.”
Very true.
Here is my take on Griffin: he is one of the few athletes whose interviews I actually like listening to. Not a single sports cliche. He actually says useful stuff; sense of humor too. In fact, he might just singlehandedly convince me to be neutral toward the Redskins, after over a decade of anti-fanhood. No small feat there.
Urban hair, suburban English, good football, looks black “acts white.” Something for everyone to like (and hate), I guess. I give it a big fat whatever. Let’s watch him play football.
“There’s no information at all - I’m just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue.”
Why is it an issue if an African American is Republican?
“I don’t know because I keep hearing these things. ”
I heard THINGS….
Here is my take on Griffin:
“For me, you don’t ever want to be defined by the color of your skin,” Griffin said on Wednesday, via Tom Corbett of USA Today Sports. “You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I’ve tried to go out and do.”
And that is all anyone can ask of any young man or woman of any color of the rainbow be they an NFL quarterback, a Sanitation worker or anything in between.
Well public Sanitation workers make a lot so maybe an NFL quarterback, a Grocery store shelf stocker or anything in between.
“In fact, he might just singlehandedly convince me to be neutral toward the Redskins, after over a decade of anti-fanhood. No small feat there.”
i live in the DC metro area and can’t stand snider or the redskins.
when i watched griffin play college ball…i really started to like the kid.
when he came to the redskins my attitude about them changed…i want the redskins to do well because i want griffin to do well.
his politics never crosssed my mind…not for an instant. as a “white” father and with what i have seen of griffin publicly…i would be proud to have my daughter bring home that young man…NFL QB or not.
Will the religious right take on GOP racism?
The founder of the Promise Keepers speaks out against — surprise! — white privilege
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/will_religious_right_take_on_gop_racism/
Ask yourself: If you heard the following comments, what kind of person would you guess said them?
I believe (I’ve benefited) because I’m Caucasian. I believe that black men have less opportunity, less tenure and shorter time (to prove themselves in the workplace) …
I think men of color have a more difficult road to tread and I think many people don’t realize it …
I’ve heard (people) say it doesn’t matter what color (an employee) is (when they fire him). To me that offends every person of color out there. It is as if to suggest that everything is done on a fair scale. It’s not done on a fair scale. Men of color don’t have the same privileges or opportunities and they are under greater pressure when they step in (to a job) …
For some reason our culture has dialed up something that causes us to have less confidence in people of color.
Now ask yourself: What would your reaction be if you discovered that those comments were made not by a civil rights activist or a liberal politician subsequently being decried as a “race baiter” by right-wing media outlets, but instead by one of the best known Christian conservative icons in America? You’d probably have trouble believing that was true.
After all, the religious right has not been known for its forward-thinking views on racial equality — and that’s putting it mildly. From Bob Jones University’s retrograde dating policies to the Mormon church’s prohibition of black priests to what even Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed concedes is “the shameful legacy of racism” in “the white evangelical church,” religious conservatism has often been an active supporter of both explicit and institutional bigotry.
But, alas, it is true — the above indictment of racism and white privilege came from none other than University of Colorado football legend Bill McCartney. Yes, the same Bill McCartney who founded and still leads the ultraconservative Promise Keepers, and the same Bill McCartney who has led national fights against a woman’s right to choose an abortion and against same-sex marriage. And that context makes the scathing comments incredibly important not just in the arena of college football, but
So?
Is there a point to this post, or is it a random collection of things that mention race or feminism? (Perhaps a peak into the fevered imaginations of many on the right?)
Obewanna has set race relations back 20 years, maybe 30….and allowed brothers to take their black hoods off, and to post wanted dead or alive posters of white people. aka Black panthers and no one gets arrested…. Ain’t America great.
The reason you suck at life isn’t because of a bunch of highly educated black men, it’s because of your own borderline literacy, laziness, and lack of critical thinking skills.
“Obewanna has set race relations back 20 years, maybe 30″
Not for me. I have the same black friends I had before Obama was elected and have a couple of black neighbors now that are pretty cool hard working people.
But it is fun stirring the sh#t up with alpha and the “it`s my way or the highway” left.
Obewanna has set race relations back 20 years, maybe 30…. because he’s uppity and does not know his place.
We need trolls like this to remind us that everything is about race, party labels or some other superficial devisive stupidity.
race, party labels or some other superficial devisive stupidity
Odd that you’re such a reliable defender of the party that blows the racial dog whistles, then.
(When you’re not claiming to be above politics.)
Two for one!
The racist trolling by dio, nycdj, and others like this guy is by far the saddest thing i see online in my Web surfing travels. People like to blame purge groups for their own failed lives. Sad.
Other… Not ‘purge’. Phone malfunction.
Comment by joesmith
2012-12-14 07:21:47
“it’s because of your own borderline literacy, laziness, and lack of critical thinking skills.”
Comment by joesmith
2012-12-14 07:17:54
Other… Not ‘purge’. Phone malfunction.
I guess the phone is not as smart as you are huh joe.
LMAO
What does my phone interpreting my swype entry incorrectly (and my correction) have to do with people like DJ using a bulls**t argument to explain why he’s a failure? I wasn’t blaming Chinese workers or Samsung for a major outcome in my life. The fact you attempted to draw some parallel between these two things is very LOLable.
OK
I once had to ask what a fluffer was and now I have to ask what a “swype entry” is?
Swype is a way of entering text on a touch screen phone; I think most android phones use swype. With swype you don’t have to actually type individual letters, you just drag your finger across a few letters and it predicts the words. The accuracy is pretty astonishing after you use it for a while. I’ve only had my phone a few weeks so it still screws up words sometimes.
Joe
Its not racist if its TRUE…
Crime is up poverty is up Blacks cant read Blacks are in Jail way beyond their numbers…Obewanna says NOTHING
Is that your position we don’t need a WAR on Ebonics?
And you think the status quo is NOT racist?
s that a dog whistle I hear?
Yep. Why do many on the right freak out about the GOP’s racism? Like it isn’t there or something? Like if you deny it it isn’t there? Get real dudes.
Colin Powell’s former chief of staff: GOP is ‘full of racists’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/10/27/colin-powells-former-chief-of-staff-gop-is-full-of-racists/
Colin Powell’s former chief of staff says the Republican Party is “full of racists” who only want President Obama out of office because he’s black.
“Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists,” Col. Lawrence Wilkerson said Friday on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show.” ”And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander in chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that’s despicable.”
”And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander in chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that’s despicable.”
Him being a democrat may had something do why many white republicans did not want O in the “white” house. Also an argument can be made that Powell is racist because Powell being a republican voted O instead of the white guys like McShame and RMoney.
Also an argument can be made that Powell is racist because...it makes you feel better about Republican racism.
Personally I dislike bigots and I avoid them. They are ignorant.
What I detest even more is white liberals like you who sees race and racism in everything.
Sometimes you have to have nothing to lose to tell the truth.
Former GOP leader apologizes to Obama, calls Republicans ‘racist’
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/14/former-gop-leader-apologizes-to-obama-calls-republicans-racist/
Miami, Florida (CNN) - The ex-chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Jim Greer, is now apologizing for stoking fears about President Obama’s address to school children last year…
….Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the President for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our Party today. My children and I look forward to the President’s speech.”
Wow. Did he find “god” after he lost a race to do more of the same?
The racist trolling
The anonymity of the web brings out racism like nothing else. Anyone who believes that racism does not exist anymore obviously does not hang out in cyberspace.
+1 joe
We need
trollstruths like this to remind us that …the Republican party makes a concerted effort to embrace coded racism.Say it again, sing it from the roof tops. It doesn’t matter. Both sides use race as a tool. Are R’s racist? probably I’m not one of them, it doesn’t matter to me either way.
My problem with you specifically, is that you refuse to admit that liberals are doing the exact same thing.
Rio,
Since you appear to be an expert on others racism, I would be interested (perhaps the rest of the board as well) in hearing your thoughts and views about the ‘cornball brother’ comments.
Is it racism, or nothing to see there because it’s a black gentlemen telling another black man to fall in line with the collective?
your thoughts and views about the ‘cornball brother’ comments.
My thoughts on the cornball brother comment is that it’s much ado about nothing. Some sports commentator says something stupid about race, and that proves what, exactly? Only that he’s an idiot- as many sports commentators are, especially when they start talking about something other than sports.
What does it tell us that you guys are doing back-flips in joy over this guy’s comment?
It tells us more than his stupid comment does.
Sandra Rice drops out of running for the Sec of State job
Rice noted that President Obama’s second-term agenda included “comprehensive immigration reform, balanced deficit reduction, job creation.”
uh, Sandra, you have a problem telling the truth and your lies just aren’t fooling anybody.
Is the White House rascist because they told her to take a hike???
She’s an empire drone/thug. BJ posted that evidence a few days back.
Heck, the NYT did quite the expose on this beyatch, noting her affinity for African strongman dick-taters.
That was the death blow. I guarantee you if the NYT hadn’t done that story, she’d still be in the running for SOS.
Well…. she’s has a willingness to apologize for our only thuggish “friend” in the mideast.
How did SUSAN Rice ever become the mouth piece for the lie?
Why was she even out there talking after the Bengazi situation?
Seems to me that was a job for State or some National Security advisor type…?
Did she volunteer? or was she ordered to be the face of whatever “story” was being sold?
Its very important for black people to understand how she ended up “under the bus”.
Sacrificed at the altar of public opinion.
I’m sure she will be taken care of nicely for taking the lumps. Positions on corporate boards, insider information, etc.
I heard she’s up for NSA chief.
This gotta be the first time since Nixon’s southern strategy a white man (Kerry?) beat a black woman in the democratic party.
Is she black? Bi-racial?
I am itty-bitty lighter than her but easily tan like her. But I pass up as “white” although I do not consider myself white. Mixed parentage and some $hit like that.
How did SUSAN Rice ever become the mouth piece for the lie?
May be to protect the “brother” president? She figured Hilary might not do it so the Sista jumped on it.
maybe it’s because she was mixed race and female and they knew if it came back to bite them in the ass they could just claim “racism” and “bigotism”.
the race card has become so effective and prominent that i would not put it passed them to “plan” for it.
it’s kind of like a “treachery” card in the old Dune boardgame.
May be to protect the “brother” president? She figured Hilary might not do it so the Sista jumped on it.
I wonder how many Republicans curse each day because they wake up with a Black President.
And it’s going to be every day for 8 years. And we’re not even 1/2 way through. We have more than 4 more years to go. 8 years is a long time. Heck, even 4 years is a long time. Wow, I just realized that 4 years is a long time.
I wonder how many Republicans curse each day because they wake up with a Black President.
I bet it’s a lot less than you would like to imagine.
Rio, you just do not understand. We have a black president because a white president could never shaft minorities the way he is shafting them. The cities would be on fire if real unemployment was as high as it is under him and the bankers were allowed to recoup their losses by monetary policies that effectively caused the working classes of all races to pay for the mistakes of the Fed backed banks by inflation and the assuming of the debts as national debts.
It is just like on the FB stories we heard where the FB who often was a minority saying they trusted the loan officer since he or she was their race. They ended up with the worse of the predatory loans because they trusted someone of their own race.
“Rio, you just do not understand. We have a black president because a white president could never shaft minorities the way he is shafting them. The cities would be on fire if real unemployment….”
Like only Nixon could go to China? Are you are saying that he’s shafted minorities because his policies created high unemployment? That’s a tall argument, I’d hate to be the one to have to prove it. No one expected UE to fall, even slightly, when he entered office, as it was clearly on the rise when he took office, and it was clear that it would continue to rise, no matter who was president, and that it would be a long road back. Whether his policies or lack thereof have dramatically helped matters is another question, but I would not even come close to making the statement that you did.
But as for how many Republicans wake up and curse each day because they have a black president, I’d say damn few. More than Dems, but not by that much. Hell, in the deep south, it might even be equal! I’d love to get Zell Miller’s take on this.
Still doesn’t change the facts.
Most Repubs are racists.
Suzie got nixed in favor of John Kerry because she doesn’t toe the neocon line on Israel.
Stop interjection intelligent observations in the path of everybody’s diatribes!
“Suzie got nixed in favor of John Kerry because she doesn’t toe the neocon line on Israel.”
Ah heck, thirty days in gitmo, a congressional log-rolling camp and a trip to the western wall, and she’d be ready to protect the American people from global terrorists.
“Republicans tune in to coded racism”
But so is the U.S. electorate, and they resoundingly voted against it last month.
Everything has a housing angle…everything.
Cheap Fed money fueled everything. And it STILL does.
A $50,000 stove for a house? It better come with a 28 year-old Swedish cook and give happy endings…
———————————
Ex-Met Lenny Dykstra Gets 6 1/2-Month Prison Sentence for Fraud Edvard Pettersson - Dec 4, 2012 - Bloomberg.com
Former New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra received a six and a half-month prison sentence for looting valuables worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from his mansion after he had filed for bankruptcy.
Dykstra’s federal public defender, Hilary Potashner, told the judge that drug and alcohol abuse were behind Dykstra’s string of criminal conduct in the past few years, including the bankruptcy fraud, his efforts to lease cars with false business information and attempts to have sex with women who responded to an ad for a personal assistant.
In July, Dykstra pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy property and money laundering. The government alleged that after he filed for bankruptcy in 2009, he stripped as much as $400,000 in valuables and fixtures from the $18.5 million mansion north of Los Angeles he had bought two years earlier from Hall of Fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky.
The Southern California native sold a profitable car wash business in 2007 when he bought the mansion just as the real estate market started its decline, prosecutors said. A plan to turn the mansion in a time-share went nowhere as did Dykstra’s Players Club magazine, prosecutors said.
In the federal bankruptcy fraud case, prosecutors said the losses to his creditors were difficult to determine, such as the market value of a used $50,000 stove Dykstra took from his mansion and sold “out of the back of a truck for a few thousand dollars.” They also accused him of illegally selling baseball memorabilia that should have been part of the bankruptcy estate.
In his 2009 Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization filing, Dykstra said he had $37.1 million in debts. The case was converted to Chapter 7 liquidation later that year.
aapl stock looks like a generational buying opportunity this morning, lmfao.
Did you buy yet? Just wait few more days you may get another generational buying opportunity. And few days after that…..
Did you notice though while AAPL is falling off the cliff, GOOG is climbing higher and higher. It’s like people sold AAPL and bought GOOG. Dumb money chasing who knows what?
do you think the suckers will get a bailout when they lose their @ss again?
I keep getting legal notices about class action lawsuits against companies who saw their stock hammered in 2008. yesterday i got a notice for a class action lawsuit against CITI. You have to fill out a form to be included in the suit. That BS automatically hits the shredder.
Lying Lawyers full employment act?
No bailouts for dot bombs. Only Megabank, Inc gets bailed, because it is too-big-to-fail.
WOW, what a tool.
Just think: he could have walked away scott-free from that $37.1M in debts if he had managed to avoid being an idiot.
BTW, I believe this is the first case of a house-stripper actually serving time that has been reported here on the HBB—or did I miss one?
Awesome. The scales of justice are so rarely in balance. Not that I mind seeing this fool head to the pokey.
Yes - but only AFTER Dykstra declared bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy judges don’t take too kindly to people either:
A. Not declaring ALL assets or hiding assets
B. Striping assets AFTER they have been declared
That is why people who “strategically” walk away from their house and who do not declare bankruptcy are going to hounded the rest of their lives.
The have the money to PAY their debts but will not and can NOT go into bankruptcy because they will have to declare ALL assets and do whatever the bankruptcy judge tells them to do.
And the creditors know this.
BTW, I believe this is the first case of a house-stripper actually serving time that has been reported here on the HBB—or did I miss one?
I know several who strategically defaulted and aren’t getting hounded at all. No recourse state = walk away scott free.
One of them even bought a larger house with better schools closer to his job right before doing it.
“…right before doing it.”
= fraud
I smell a debt collection business model in this post.
Do you? (Or does the business model already exist?)
Dang you should look a NYC CL…those personal assistants are popping all over the place, as well as sugar daddies….need a little help on the rent i have a job for you…….yeah right….
, his efforts to lease cars with false business information and attempts to have sex with women who responded to an ad for a personal assistant.
Have not gotten a chance to read this yet but sounds good.
Why We Can’t Solve Big Problems
MIT Technology Review
Problem Solving Skills - Business Trends
Since Apollo 17’s flight in 1972, no humans have been back to the moon, or gone anywhere beyond low earth orbit. No one has traveled faster than the crew of Apollo 10 in 1969. Blithe optimism about technology’s powers has evaporated, too, as big problems that people had imagined technology would solve, such as hunger, poverty, malaria, climate change, cancer, and the diseases of old age, have come to seem intractably hard. That something happened to humanity’s capacity to solve big problems is a commonplace. Recently, however, the complaint has developed a new stridency among Silicon Valley’s investors and entrepreneurs, although it is usually expressed a little differently: people say there is a paucity of real innovations. Instead, they worry that technologists have diverted us and enriched themselves with trivial toys. While this may be true, it is difficult to believe Silicon Valley’s claim that the incentives offered by venture capitalists to entrepreneurs are to blame. In reality, there are many factors that interfere with our ability to solve big problems, including resistance to change among government and industry leaders, an inflated belief in the power of technology to solve all ills, and a lack of understanding about complex issues. (3,601 words)
OK - now compare spending priorities
1969
Entitlement Spending - 35% of the budget
NASA - 2.31% of the budget
Under Richard Nixon - An actual surplus in the federal budget
2012
Entitlement Spending - 55% of the budget
NASA - 0.48% of the budget
Under obama - Trillion dollar deficits in the federal budget
Liberals - you got what you wanted. Now why are you complaining?
Actually, the only year Nixon had a surplus was 1969, and that was the budget he inherited from LBJ.
http://federal-budget.findthedata.org/d/d/Richard-Nixon
I see you missed the entire point of my post.
Food Stamp Presidents to do not send people to the moon.
Even if they spend (as a percent of GDP) 3x the amount of money
And you missed my point: We aren’t going back because there is no public support for that boondoggle. It has nothing to do with food stamps.
We only did it the first time to prove we were better than the Russians. The cold war ended a long time ago.
1. Food Stamp Presidents to do not send people to the moon.
2. We have Food Stamps because we gutted our economy to benefit the rich.
Conclusion: Countries that gut their economies to benefit the rich do not send people to the moon.
If you spent trillions killing moslems, you won’t have money to wipe your a$$ either.
“…that boondoggle.”
Didn’t serendipitously rapid advancement in computer technology result from the boondoggle, leading up to the creation of the predecessor to the internet (ARPANET, I believe they called it)?
I suppose it is tough to identify root cause in a type of rapid technological advance; one might credit the Cold War with spawning both the internet and the Moon Shot.
“Since Apollo 17’s flight in 1972, no humans have been back to the moon, or gone anywhere beyond low earth orbit.”
Ive been researching Apollo 8 and find it interesting that humans were sent beyond LEO before they sent other mammals?
In addition, at some point in the manned space program, the astronauts stopped looking like they spent a week sealed in a tin can (greasy unwashed hair, unshaven, bags under the eyes…) and began to look like they spent a week at a motel?
Just sayin.
Could it be possible that without gravity the hairs don’t grow and you don’t sweat as much?
“the astronauts stopped looking like they spent a week sealed in a tin can (greasy unwashed hair, unshaven, bags under the eyes…) and began to look like they spent a week at a motel?”
That’s because they invented Tang!
Astronaut Breakfast with Tang TV commercial - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-gML3S0WK8 - 198k
the astronauts stopped looking like they spent a week sealed in a tin can (greasy unwashed hair, unshaven, bags under the eyes…) and began to look like they spent a week at a motel?
Astronauts spend months on the ISS and look fine.
Comment by In Colorado
Astronauts spend months on the ISS and look fine.
—————————————–
But thats to be expected from living in a 100 billion dollar orbiting mens locker room, complete with a shower, exercise equipment…
In addition, interestingly enough, the ISS cabin pressure is kept of 14.7 PSI instead of a 5 PSI 100% oxygen like Apollo flights.
This seems like an unnecessary burden to keep the station “pumped up” like this; the wear and tear on all the o-rings and seals, the need for decompression before, after all space walks…
BTW– its not due to the fire hazzard like the one that killed Gus Grissom. That was 100% oxygen at 16 PSI or some crazy pressure like that.
From what I’ve read, those ISS showers aren’t “all that” and the station is rather pungent, in a B.O. sort of way.
As for how the Apollo astronauts looked while traveling, the TV images were rather low res. I also seem to recall that they had buzz cuts.
In a zero gravity environment there is little danger of fire even in a 100% oxygen environment because any fire that gets started in zero gravity will immediately put itself out.
There is no “up” or “down” in a zero gravity environment, and because of this there is no “up” for hot gasses to travel to and no “down” for fresh oxygen to emerge from. If the hot gasses - the waste product from the fire - have no place in particular to go then they will accumulate around the fire and shut out the flow of fresh oxygen needed to fuel the fire and as a result the fire will smother itself out.
But if there is a fan or some other device that circulates the oxygen then there will be the “blowing away” from the fire waste products and the “‘blowing into” the fire fresh oxygen which will allow the fire to continue to burn.
So the trick is to not have a lot of air circulation in a 100% oxygen environment; Easy to do during a short-term cramped Apollo flight, less easy to do - and less comfortable - during longer, less-cramped flights.
Oh, and there is the issue of pressure. The greater the pressure the greater the burn rate (think high compression engines). Keep the pressure low and the burn rate will be low.
Mary Roach’s book Packing for Mars.
Good read.
Pure oxygen was discontinued after the Apollo 1 fire.
Wiki-up “Apollo 1″ for an interesting read.
In terms of real technical invention/advancement, little has happened since about 1900.
A great portion of what has occurred since is refinement, not true advancement.
Even computer system analog design stems directly from the advent of cotton looms during the 1830s and 1840s.
The field of medicine, of course, is another story.
Are you saying “Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizzas” were not a super break-through in advancement?
No, the real advancement was when guys from DARPA found a way to get both pepperoni AND cheese into the crust. God bless America.
Even cheese-stuffed smart phones aren’t an advancement!
If we ever solve that nuclear fission/fusion riddle, that’s be one heckuva advancement. Remember all that chatter from 20-25 years ago?
“In terms of real technical invention/advancement, little has happened since about 1900.”
You have no idea. There has been incredible advancement, but it’s not making it’s way to the consumer level or everyday news.
Faster than light, quantum computing and communications, printed organics, stem cell treatment, graphene manufacturing, 3D home printing, just to name a few, are now reality.
And there the transistor. Ever heard of it?
“You have no idea.”
Ain’t it da trut.
“… graphene manufacturing …”
You never heard of it?
Wiki-up “graphene” for a we bit of a hint of what’s been happening since 1900.
The fields of science and technology are exploding.
Here’s a neat video about “quantum levitation”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJV5PSpYPLO&feature=player_imbedded#
Ooops.
Google “quantum levitation youtube”, that should get you there.
Since Apollo 17’s flight in 1972, no humans have been back to the moon, or gone anywhere beyond low earth orbit.
Space exploration no longer captivates our imagination. People are more interested in their smart phones than the Mars Rovers or the ISS. They only time the space shuttle captured our attention was when there was an accident. If there was public interest, there would be more money allocated to NASA.
We also decided- rightly- that we get a lot more scientific bang for the buck with unmanned space missions. Hitting golf balls on the moon notwithstanding.
QE4 Is Here: Bernanke Delivers $85B-A-Month Until Unemployment Falls Below 6.5%
12/12/2012 @ 12:48PM
Ben Bernanke continues to make history at the Federal Reserve. On Wednesday, the FOMC announced more quantitative easing at a rate of $85 billion a month for an extended period of time. The Bernanke Fed has also modified its guidance, noting its ultra-accommodative stance will remain in place until the unemployment rate falls below 6.5% and inflation projections remain no more than half a percentage point above 2% two years out.
QE4 is here. Only a few months after announcing what had been dubbed QE3, an open-ended $40 billion a month program to buy up mortgage backed securities (MBS), the FOMC decided to extend its asset purchases in 2013 as Operation Twist expires
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/12/12/qe4-is-here-bernanke-delivers-85b-a-month-until-unemployment-falls-below-6-5/ - 93k -
While gasoline brought down the CPI this month, shelter costs ( imputed rents) continue to go up at .2%, which is a slight acceleration if computed over the year. QE will raise the nominal price of houses since rising rents increases the actual “value” of houses. Sorry, we all agreed six years ago that houses could not be justified based on rent rates, saying it is different now because of the shadow inventory is no different that the real estate agents of six years ago explaining the difference between rents and housing prices and talking about the “shortage of building lots”.
saying it is different now because of the shadow inventory is no different that the real estate agents of six years ago explaining the difference between rents and housing prices and talking about the “shortage of building lots”.
Fair point. I do find myself wondering now whether all of that shadow inventory will _ever_ come on the market.
If not, the market we’ve got may be in equilibrium.
We had our year end luncheon at work. At the table the discussion turned to real estate. Amazingly, the consensus was “buy now, or you’ll regret it later”. I brought up the shadow inventory, what will happen if mortgage rates climb back to 6%, that the MID might go away, the overall weakness of the economy, that we don’t get raises, etc.
The consensus was that none of that mattered and that the market was “red hot”.
I was surprised, to say the least.
FWIW, the shadow inventory in Colorado isn’t that significant. Their non-current loan rate is 5.5% (6th best in the country), and I read recently where foreclosures are on their way down in the state quite significantly. If there is a shadow inventory problem, I see no evidence of it in CO.
The dream dies hard.
But…maybe they’re right. Again.
What I have observed in the Westminster/Broomfield area is that, much like in Loveland, cheaper houses (under 250K) sell quickly while more expensive houses languish.
“..cheaper houses (under 250K)..”
$250k is not, even by the wildest stretch of the imagination, cheap. People have completely lost touch with what is truly affordable. It blows my mind.
BINGO
“QE will raise the nominal price of houses”
It doesn’t seem to be working.
You can say it all you want but not only government statistics, which I agree one should question, but posters actual experiences show that they are going up.
BTW, I have a question about the theory of the shadow inventory. A foreclosure occurs and another house comes on the market. One person loses the free rent of that house. But as many have said on this board, many of these people have the money to rent but they like the free rent, so he moves on maybe renting a house, perhaps from a speculator that has been buying houses. Now, that speculator moves on a buys another house, maybe even the former house of the new renter. So how does this put downward pressure on house prices or rents? It seems it is one more movement to concentrate wealth, now, the big boys even control SFHs but not something that will lead to lower house prices.
The massive excess inventory is still there. And it grows.
There are two types of markets to consider with your question:
1. High vacancy markets; and
2. Low vacancy markets.
In high vacancy markets, shadow inventory includes a lot of empty homes and is artificially reducing the ACTUAL supply of homes available for occupancy (not just reducing the supply of listings). This inherently changes the balance of supply and demand (of shelter and for shelter), which makes the market act more like a low vacancy market in terms of pricing.
If a high vacancy market were to increase the amount of vacant shadow inventory to hit the market, prices should fall, simply because you are increasing supply without increasing demand.
In low vacancy markets, shadow inventory (foreclosures yet to happen) are largely filled with people, and foreclosure activity is like a game of musical chairs, with families going from being an “owner” to being a renter, but there is a limited (if any) imbalance of supply/demand in terms of supply of shelter and demand for it.
In low vacancy markets, the reason home prices fall with increasing foreclosures is due to the type of buyers of foreclosures. When flippers buy a foreclosure, they are doing it with cash, and have “hot money”. They have promised annualized returns of 20-30% to their investors, and need to keep something for themselves. The ONLY way they can achieve these returns is by selling homes quickly after buying them. The ONLY way they can sell quickly is if they price UNDER the recent market comps. In this way they attract demand, and don’t have issues with appraisals.
The foreclosure sale is generally disregarded in considering the housing “market” values. However, the sale from the flipper to the ultimate buyer is not disregarded.
If you look at the market during the worst of the downturn, there were 1-2 “normal” market sales for every 1 “flipper-owner” sale. With this kind of proportion, those looking at the data see 1-2 “normal” prices, and 1 undercutting that “normal” price. As such, when they look at the market, they note that prices on average are a bit below what that last 1-2 “normal” homes sold for–which causes the next “normal” sales to be lower on average. This negative feedback loop continues as long as there are a high enough proportion of recent foreclosures being sold into a market.
In other words, despite low vacancies, and regardless of what prices are relative to rents, when you have high enough proportions of “flipper to owner” sales, there will be downward pressure on prices. THIS is the dynamic that can cause prices to drop below the trendline.
If you want to see the data behind my point, look at:
1. Foreclosure Radar: At the bottom of any market “trend” section, you will see a “time to resell” data point. This is the length of time between a foreclosure sale to a flipper, and when they resell the property. Most that I’ve seen are in the 4-5 month range. When you consider the need to fix-up, evict, etc. right after foreclosure, and also appraisal, inspection before selling, you can see that these homes are priced to move. California has been between 132 and 137 days for every month over the past 12 months (4.5 months). This is MUCH faster than banks selling their REO (which are 240-290 days).
2. Zillow: One of the metrics they provide is “Foreclosure Resale %”. This is the proportion of homes that were foreclosures within the prior 12 months. I haven’t done the research, but I’m willing to wager that you’ll see a correlation between falling home prices in any particular market and this percentage being high. Likewise, as this percentage drops, I think you’ll find more stories of median prices going up, markets tightening, etc. CA as an example, peaked at 57% in early 2009, now it is at 18%, and dropping rapidly. The less recent foreclosures dominate markets, the less of an effect the negative feedback loop I note above will have.
BTW, my view is that foreclosure activity is like a weight on a mattress. When you lift that weight, the mattress will quickly spring back to equilibrium, but doesn’t necessarily go above that equilibrium quickly. In that regard, my view above would predict that once foreclosures are decreased in any particularly hard-hit market, there would be a pretty quick bounce in market prices, but then the increases would slow/stop once the more natural equilibrium point was reached (ie. a market with limited distressed sales).
I agree with that part rental watch. I have argued that the mix between foreclosures and other sales can sometime distort what is really happening. The decline was overestimated and the bounce overstated due to the changes in the number of foreclosures vs. other sales.
But here is a simple math fact, the Fed wants inflation and is willing to tolerate it up to (they claim) 2.5%. I think they would allow it to go even higher before making a significant move but let us just use their number. The purchasing power of a dollar will be less than half of what it 30 years from now. If you have a mortgage you will be paying half of what you are paying in real dollars by then. Consequently, a doubling of house prices over the next 30 years, in nominal terms, can be expected even if inflation does not get out of control and I don’t know how you more than triple money supply without that happening. If you use the historical pattern, houses will increase 1% above inflation so the numbers are even more compelling.
And when you listen to Dudley speak (NY Fed), he has even noted that the Fed should telegraph being accepting of higher inflation for a time in order to “catch-up” on the years where inflation was lower.
That is a dangerous game though…hard to put the genie back in the bottle once you change people’s views on inflation.
In any event, that is at least on Dudley’s mind, and if it’s on his mind, you can be certain they have talked about the concept in their meetings (of letting inflation run a bit before tightening).
I tend to believe Chuck Schwab’s view on the Fed and inflation; I once heard him say at a conference “The Fed is trying like hell to create inflation, and eventually they’ll be successful.” And you did your numbers assuming only 2.5%…
Sorry to keep responding to my responses, but the one counter to your question of how you don’t get inflation by tripling money supply is the Japanese example. I see the Japanese example as a pretty unique example, so I don’t buy it…but some do.
Japan is unique but I have not checked out how much they have expanded their money supply, I do know that their debt is more than twice our level but since it has been funded internally it is less inflationary.
I do not have time to verify the numbers but this shows that monetary growth in Japan has been quite constrained. It also shows as I have asserted that deflation in Japan has not been the terrible thing that Keyensians have asserted:
http://mises.org/daily/5170/The-Myth-of-Japans-Lost-Decades
Here is the summary:
Summary
Despite conventional opinion, Japan’s economy has not been stagnant; it has in fact been growing in real terms — although not in monetary terms. The crucial point is that monetary changes do not necessarily reflect real changes. Japan’s GDP growth has been slow because money-supply growth has been slow; it is mainly money growth which drives GDP numbers. Therefore, going forward, we must try to observe real economic growth — the production of real goods and services — instead of just GDP. Seeing things in the correct light allows us to recoup Japan’s lost decades, which weren’t really lost
Thanks for the info on Japan…interesting stuff…
Sorry, we all agreed six years ago that houses could not be justified based on rent rates,
I agreed to no such thing. In fact, I bet my house on my belief that houses could be justified based on rent rates.
Oxide, I think you misunderstood my point. Six years ago the ratio between rents and housing prices was way out of line with historical ratios and most of the people on the board agreed with that and pointed to it to demonstrate a housing bubble to their friends, family etc. . By the time you bought your house the ratio was more than in line with historical averages, in fact, according to the Economist magazine, houses were underpriced.
Six years ago the ratio between rents and housing prices was way out of line with historical ratios
And still is considering rental rates are half the cost of owning at current inflated asking prices.
Housing = Government
Government = Housing
If the federal government had any brains or understood how it is decimating its own future, they’d send out the entire fleet of FEMA crews and bulldoze entire neighborhoods and cities. They’d hire thousands of derelicts from jails nationwide to destroy houses on the cheap under the guise of “infrastructure improvement”.
Instead, they implement yet another easing, leaving the deserted homes standing, to be bulldozed and cleared at a later date, for a much higher cost.
No - if the government had any brains.
They would get COMPLETELY OUT of guaranteeing housing loans and force banks to keep the loans on their books for at least three years.
But government does not want affordable housing.
Just like government does not want affordable colleges
Just like government does not want affordable health care.
See the pattern? It is about power and the size/scope of government. Results do NOT matter.
House price appreciation for the rich, HUD for the rest of us.
I’m not so sure that it’s the case that “the government wants”, rather than “the banksters want” and that since they own the government they get what they want.
I’m not so sure that it’s the case that “the government wants”, rather than “the banksters want” and that since they own the government they get what they want.
I think it’s what governments want as well. Republican governments wanted because it showed people were feeling richer and they can claim the success of the capitalism. Sure the republicans wanted to benefit the bankers as well.
Democratic governments want it because first you seem like providing goodies to your voters. Second, if it doesn’t work out, what’s a better political cause or campaign then preventing a 70 yr old grandma getting evicted to the street.
Win-win for both sides.
Asia Times Online - The Pentagon is ripe for reduction:
“Here we are on brink of a major historical moment. The United States is beginning to wind down the longest period of war in our history. And we’re about to turn around a 13-year-long surge in Pentagon spending.
But this isn’t the precipice that’s consuming Washington right now. Instead, the so-called “fiscal cliff”, the package of tax increases and spending cuts that will begin in January unless congress agrees on a way to stop them, is the big buzzword.
Pentagon cuts are actually part of the “cliff” plan. You’d hardly know it - most of the talk is about “reforming” taxes (including tax cuts for the rich and corporations) and “reforming entitlements” (a euphemism for weakening the safety net). But without a new deal, we’ll be spending about US$50 billion less on the military each year.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has referred to these cuts as “doomsday”. Really? Over 10 years these cuts, adjusted for inflation, would take the Pentagon budget back to where it was in 2006. As high, in other words, as it was at any time since World War II.”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/NL14Aa01.html
I’m guessing that sometime between Christmas and New Years they will pass a 1 year extension of the status quo, so that they can have “more time to fix it.”
Bloomberg - U.S. Must Reset Housing Expectations Moynihan Says:
“Brian T. Moynihan, Bank of America Corp.’s chief executive officer, said the U.S. government, lenders and borrowers need to reset their expectation that everyone can own a home.
“We need to look hard at some of the old assumptions and ask the question is homeownership the right solution for everyone?” Moynihan said today in remarks prepared for delivery at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
The reset should include a modified role for government in housing, Moynihan said. He called for an “orderly transition” in the role of Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac and said the Federal Housing Administration needs to return to its original focus on helping low- and moderate-income borrowers.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-14/u-s-must-reset-housing-expectations-moynihan-says.html
Bloomberg - Pentagon Budget Is a Weapon Against Iran, Terrorists:
“With the threat of more than $500 billion in Pentagon sequestration cuts looming next month, congressional haggling over details of the 2013 defense authorization bill may seem like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
Still, the U.S. military needs to pay its bills, and Congress has a few significant issues to iron out on the package.
The two versions of the authorization bill passed by the House and the Senate are close — they differ on spending by only $4 billion on packages totaling more than half a trillion dollars. Now the House-Senate conference committee can make the bill easier for the president to sign, and better for national security, by making the right call on reconciling their respective versions. It must hash out the agreement immediately — failure to send the bill to the White House by the end of the year would mean starting over in the new Congress.
The biggest issue is a House measure that would deny money for the Defense Department to transfer or release detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S. or its territories. It would also require the secretary of defense to notify Congress 90 days before sending any detainee to a foreign country. Both rules are part of a misguided and cowardly effort to keep President Barack Obama from making good on his long-delayed promise to shut down Gitmo. Senate conferees should persuade their House colleagues to drop the requirements. They should also push for acceptance of an amendment prohibiting the detention without charge of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents suspected of terrorism and captured within the U.S., a critical tweak to our unfortunate but necessary policy of detention in the fight against global terrorism.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-13/pentagon-budget-is-a-weapon-against-iran-terrorists.html
poor old obama - everyone is just against him and nothing is his fault.
The ease with which the house and senate came to this budget reveals a truth that many of left do not want to admit, Obama wants the defense spending as badly as the Republicans. Part of the reason is that his foreign policy is not that much different from Bush. But I think the bigger reason is that he and everyone around him are dye in the wool keynesians. There is no such thing as bad government spending, just some spending is considered better than others. If there was a program paying people to dig holes and then fill it, they would support it unless the Republicans were willing to transfer the spending to a more favored social program.
Obama wants the defense spending as badly as the Republicans. Part of the reason is that his foreign policy is not that much different from Bush.
It seems that not a day goes by without Obama being trashed on “Democracy Now” over the use of drones.
for the Rick Santorum voters
Globe and Mail - ‘Zoophiles‘ vow fight after Germany re-bans bestiality:
“Late Thursday the Bundestag passed a tough new law against bestiality, which includes fines of up to 25,000 euros. The law, which is expected to be confirmed in February, is part of a trend that moves beyond Biblically rooted strictures against the “abomination” of the act to focus instead on the perceived damage to the animal.
“Sexual interaction is problematic because it can lead to harm and emotional disorder of animals,” Hans-Michael Goldmann, the head of the parliamentary committee pursuing the legal change, said in an email exchange before the vote. “It’s not proven that animals would enjoy sexual interaction with humans.”
The number of people who have sexual relations with animals is difficult to quantify.
The famous Kinsey reports – whose methodology have been roundly criticized – found in the 1940s that 8 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women had some sort of sexual contact with animals, numbers which rose dramatically among rural residents. Research in the 1970s put the incidence at 5 per cent among men and 1.9 per cent among women, a drop the author ascribed to a reduction in the number of people living on farms. The numbers are generally thought to be artificially low because of society’s prohibition on admitting such an act.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/zoophiles-vow-fight-after-germany-re-bans-bestiality/article6356367/
If they love each other and just want to be together - who are we to judge them and deny them their rights?
Lemons don’t have rights do they?
That is baaad.(sheep joke notice)
Why is the practice of men having sex with other men considered a “preference” that I have to tolerate and can’t criticise?
But “my” preference for tieing women up and having sex with them is considered a “fetish” that anyone can criticise and accuse me of being a sick and perverted individual?
Why is homosexuality being sold as a “preference” instead of a “fetish?”
Because they have better lobbyists and PR than you do?
Your fetish does give new meaning to the phrase tying the knot.
If they had significant votes and money, one party or another would have “championed” it.
Because their partners volunteered, and the women you tie up didn’t?
Signed,
SFRLAA (Small Furry Rodent Lovers Association of America)
Whatz the difference between pink and purple?
The grip.
On a recent trip to Seattle I checked in late to my hotel, then woke and walked downstairs to find I had booked into the same hotel as hundreds of Furry Rodent folks.
Definitely experienced what it felt like to be in the minority that day!
Be there:
http://www.rockymountainfurcon.org/
Needs a better name. Up here it’s RainFurrest!
I wonder if college team mascots go on to be Furries professionally.
Why is homosexuality being sold as a “preference” instead of a “fetish?”
Gay people have existed in every historical period, in every culture, and in every ethnicity.
If homosexuality were simply a choice, then all of prohibitions against it (laws, stoning, death, social ostracism, reprogramming, etc.) would have worked by now.
When they find the gay gene, what are you gonna do? You are on the wrong side of history. Deal with it.
I have always found it ironic that people that hate homosexuals and force them to marry “breeders” just increase the incidence of the gay gene in the gene pool.
Comment by sfhomowner
2012-12-14 13:10:43
Why is homosexuality being sold as a “preference” instead of a “fetish?”
Racist people have existed in every historical period, in every culture, and in every ethnicity.
If racism were simply a choice, then all of prohibitions against it (laws, stoning, death, social ostracism, reprogramming, etc.) would have worked by now.
When they find the racism gene, what are you gonna do? You are on the wrong side of history. Deal with it.
Discrimination comes in all flavors.
You just happen to believe that yours is acceptable.
So did the folks who supported slavery and Jim Crow Laws. And the ones who did not want women to vote. And the Germans who thought Hitler was doing the right thing.
Cheer all you want for Uganda, it only makes you look like a jerk.
“But “my” preference for tieing women up and having sex with them is considered a “fetish” that anyone can criticise and accuse me of being a sick and perverted individual?
Homosexuality, to my knowledge, is not being sold as a “preference”, at least not by gays. I suppose that is how it’s being sold by the religious right. As for your “fetish”, I don’t think most people would care, as long as it’s consensual. Regardless, anyone can also criticize and accuse gays of being sick and perverted individuals. Happens every day. Just make sure your lady friends want to be tied up before you do it! Jesus, what about gays who tie each other up? I trust you’re on their side on this one?
I have no problem with your fetish as long as you do it with women who enjoy being tied up.
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2012-12-14 18:02:12
I have no problem with your fetish as long as you do it with women who enjoy being tied up.
—————–
Should it be taught in schools like homosexuality?
Homosexuality and fetishes are two different things. (Fetish being a subset of gender preference, not an equivalent.)
And I’d take exception to your statement that homosexuality is “taught” in schools anymore than “race” is taught in schools. The high school curriculum in human sexuality doesn’t formally veer off into say, insect worship, although it certainly might reasonably be addressed in university level anthropological studies. Engaging question, though….
In today’s NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/business/colleges-debt-falls-on-students-after-construction-binges.html?hp&_r=0
“Building a Showcase Campus, Using an I.O.U.
A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students — has left colleges and universities saddled with large amounts of debt. Oftentimes, students are stuck picking up the bill.
Overall debt levels more than doubled from 2000 to 2011 at the more than 500 institutions rated by Moody’s, according to inflation-adjusted data compiled for The New York Times by the credit rating agency. In the same time, the amount of cash, pledged gifts and investments that colleges maintain declined more than 40 percent relative to the amount they owe.
With revenue pinched at institutions big and small, financial experts and college officials are sounding alarms about the consequences of the spending and borrowing. Last month, Harvard University officials warned of “rapid, disorienting change” at colleges and universities.
“The need for change in higher education is clear given the emerging disconnect between ever-increasing aspirations and universities’ ability to generate the new resources to finance them,” said an unusually sobering introduction to Harvard’s annual report for the fiscal year ended in June.
A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students
I have seen this first hand at our local State U’s. It’s even worse at those pricey private schools.
Nothing like taking out a 30-year mortgage on the campus climbing wall and sushi bar.
Yes, I was amazed a few years ago when I looked at some of the “dorms” in Boulder. I did feel at home there, it is a lot like Burlington, Vermont.
Paid for by students loans guaranteed by the US Government.
That can NOT be discharged in bankruptcy.
Given to anyone who can fog a mirror.
Anyone see a pattern when government tries to “help”…?
Well, it has to be better than the “bad old days” of the free market days when colleges could be paid for by students delivering pizza at night.
Given to anyone who can fog a mirror.
As a parent with kids in college, I can tell you this: they try to stick the bulk of the loans on the parents (the so called Parent Plus loans). Parent Plus loans are subject to a credit check and can be denied. The federal direct student loans have caps of about $6-7K per year.
The federal money loaned directly to students is of the “fog a mirror” variety, but as mentioned above, is capped.
We also received a financial aid “offer” from a private school. The breakdown was: $6K loan to the student, $15K loan to me (Parent Plus). Needless to say, we thanked them for their time.
Well, it has to be better than the “bad old days” of the free market days when colleges could be paid for by students delivering pizza at night.
FWIW, those were also the days when State U’s received generous subsidies from the state government. I remember when a year’s tuition at UC or Cal State was only $1000. Here in the Centennial State our State U’s charged as little as $2000 a year only 10 years ago. Then the state funding shriveled up. U Northern Colorado in Greeley is funded 75% by student fees. The rest comes from Denver and the Feds.
Private schools were pricey back in the “good old days” (not as bad as now, though). I was able to attend a private school in the early 1980’s because I had a very generous, full ride scholarship. There is no way I could have paid my way through the University of San Diego by delivering pizzas. Even had I worked full time for minimum wage I couldn’t have covered the tuition.
A few of the former community colleges in Florida offer 4 year degrees in the $2,500 per year range. Regular state school is downright insanity.
2Banana - r u ok with the US “helping” in Iraq? Kinda expensive last time I looked.
OMG
At least 26 dead in shooting at Connecticut elementary school
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/14/police-respond-to-shooting-at-connecticut-elementary-school/
DEVELOPING: Authorities say at least 26 people, including 18 children, were killed Friday when a gunman opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary school.
A law enforcement official said the shooter, who is dead, is believed to be a father of one of the students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
An official with knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press that the man apparently had two guns.
Earlier reports of a second gunman are unconfirmed. The Connecticut Post reports that police are also questioning a handcuffed man in connection with the shooting. Witnesses told the newspaper he was led out of the woods by officers.
Why can’t these fookers just kill themselves and call it a day?
What is this phenomenon of wanting to kill as many before taking your own life?
A misguided form of revenge? As in “I’ve suffered, and now it’s your turn.” Add in a little paranoid schizophrenia and everyone is out to get you. You might as well get them first.
because they are fooking crazy.
These shooters are NOT crazy.
Notice they always pick “gun free zones” where the victims can NOT defend themselves nor shoot back.
They want to cause maximum harm. Just like the terrorists they are.
because they are fooking crazy.
That reminds me of a line from the movie “Sling Blade” where the main character, after fixing a lawn mower, remarks that “I’m crazy, not stupid.”
As for gun free zones, shootings also happen at places that are not “gun free zones”, like the movie theater in Aurora, CO. They happen at shopping malls, parks, restaurants, hotel lobbies, etc.
Even if the principal has a gun collection in his office, the nut job could easily kill dozens before a response could be put together. Short of having armed security on patrol, I don’t see how this can be prevented.
Short of having armed security on patrol, I don’t see how this can be prevented.
Security guards in each school and place of business. Our unemployment is back to zero.
Not trying to insensitive but could not pass it up. Sorry.
FWIW, we have security where I work, but they are unarmed. I wonder with all these current events if that might change in the not too distant future.
“The official said that a gun used in the attacks is a .223-caliber rifle.”
Isn’t the .223 Northeastener’s preferred zombie defender?
“Security guards in each school and place of business. Our unemployment is back to zero.”
figure out way this policy could make politicians and banksters rich and it just might work.
Security guards in each school and place of business. Our unemployment is back to zero.
Well, when I bring up bringing all the troops home I’m usually met with “And what jobs will we have for them?”
There you go. After a very, VERY rigorous psyche eval of course.
We all ready know he is a twenty year old with ties to the school and was presently living in New Jersey. Can’t wait to hear how everyone knew he was a head case but could not get him committed. When I grew up people only brought guns to school when they were going to be hunting after school. The guns were there but nobody was thinking of using them on another person. We are one sick society to be unable to stop these shootings.
The New Jersey connection maybe another person with some unspecified connection to the shooting.
Let’s be clear here, mental illness is what’s at the heart of this madness. If anything will turn back this wave of mass murders it will be educating the public and our health care system to identify these sick people and treat them. In some cases it may be necessary to lock them up to protect us. At the margin it could be argued that maybe having 100 round magazines and some types of ammo serves no useful purpose other than entertain some people who just want to watch the world burn.
At the marginFront and center
my father used to collect guns. he probably has over 50 handguns, shotguns, and rifles.
he probably hasn’t bought a box of ammo in over 30 years.
Almost the exact thing my wife and I thought (she didn’t say “fookers” but otherwise…)
It just sets the bar higher for the next psychopath. I’m expecting the next shooter to set a new American record. So Sad.
I am afraid you are right. It’s the culture and I am not talking about the “gun culture.” I am sure gun has some role to play here.
What I am talking about is culture of killing. Bush killed thousands of brown children, Obama still kills with his drones. Should we be more outraged that this guy (or guys) kill some of our own?
Mass killings are non-partisan. But they are yet another shining example of American Exceptionalism. Our “culture” is drenched in 400 years of blood, and this is just the natural progression of it
Perhaps, in the case where it’s random. This one had a personal effect to it.
“It just sets the bar higher for the next psychopath. I’m expecting the next shooter to set a new American record. So Sad.”
Perhaps the progressives can put more signs around schools saying “gun free school zone”…Isn’t that your solution?
By the way…I think the next one is going to get taken down by a CCW holder or a cop that is close by, but we won’t hear much about it because it does not fit the progressive media’s agenda.
“Perhaps the progressives can put more signs around schools saying “gun free school zone”…Isn’t that your solution?”
No. They’re playing you. Put up the signs now for you to laugh at, cuz they are kinda pointless and goofy. Then wait for the next tragedy, and BOOM, take the guns away.
Here is a challenge for you:
Try to go a whole month making at least one post a day without ever using the term “progessive.”
Quote from the Yahoo stock message board:
Re: GUN NUT KILLS 26 IN CT
by dem274 . 4 minutes 19 seconds ago
They should of had a set of rifles in the principle office, at all schools. Gun ban will just make people more sheepish.
“This will stir more gun control debates this weekend, thus influencing people to rush out and buy guns.
SWHC could see a strong move next week. Buy the dips.”
So you just walk into the principal’s office and take them out first. It’s not like they’re going tohave the rifles slung over their shoulders while they work. They won’t have any time to get to those rifles.
Because everyone who wants to teach school also wants to think about guns while they’re teaching. Right.
There is a perception called reality, you do the children a huge disservice by not living in the world of the real. Bad things happen, we should all have some kind of mental preparation at a minimum and preferably some type of weapon and/or weapons training.
The sooner we see one of these douchebags have his/her pumpkin popped by armed resistors, the sooner this madness will slow down or disappear.
It’s should HAVE, not should OF. Speak English.
What a ch!ckensh!t coward! If there is a hell, I hope they have a special place for this subhuman animal.
Killing people with nothing to do with your issues is one think. Killing little children is a total other.
That is an insult to animals. How about savages?
Yeah, I know. Then it would be an insult to savages too.
Maybe the NRA will argue that the elementary school children should each have been armed so that they could have shot the perpetrator.
One of the victims was the mother of the shooter. I think the NRA correctly will be able to point to another breakdown in our mental health system. That mom, probably tried many times to get him sent away to an institution only to run into the reforms of the 1970’s that made it very difficult to lock up nut cases.
Never mind, they are apparently already working on that:
Bill expanding concealed-carry access passed by Michigan Legislature
LANSING, Mich. -
The Michigan Legislature has enacted a bill allowing people who undergo extra training to carry concealed weapons in places such as schools, churches, day care centers and sports stadiums where they previously were off-limits.
Have you ever lived in flyover?
It’s different here.
That is a good thing. Slapping a sign up that says “gun free school zone” only makes you feel better, but does nothing for safety…In fact, it really amounts to an advertisement proclaiming “unarmed defenseless victims here!!”. All schools should have some type of armed security, perhaps off duty or retired police officers.
“What a ch!ckensh!t coward!”
Yes, and they wear body armor to keep armed resistance at bay until they can kill as many people as possible. Time to start practicing head shots at the range more often.
“DON’T USE THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO TAKE AWAY MY GUNS!!!!”
(Hypothetical statement by the next crazy planning a future school shooting rampage…)
I have guns, I don’t shoot people with them. I have a car, I don’t drive it into schoolyards. I have kitchen knives, I don’t stab teenaged girls in shopping malls. I have gopher gas, I don’t use it on sleeping grandpas.
When urbanity paranoia meets rural reality, guns usually get the blame.
Killing for survival IS reality. Urban and suburban life insulates you from that to the point that it’s shocking when you’re exposed to it. I kind of enjoy not being exposed to it every day myself. But I know it’s out there being done for me every day. And I know that at any time conditions could deteriorate to the point where I’ll have to do it for myself again.
I feel sick hearing about this. WTF!!!??
Yes, there will always be crazy violent people. But in places without so many guns, they can’t do as much harm.
From today’s news:
China School Attack: Knife-Wielding Man Injures 22 Kids, 1 Adult Outside Primary School
BEIJING — A knife-wielding man injured 22 children and one adult outside a primary school in central China as students were arriving for classes Friday, police said, the latest in a series of periodic rampage attacks at Chinese schools and kindergartens.
The attack in the Henan province village of Chengping happened shortly before 8 a.m., said a police officer from Guangshan county, where the village is located.
The attacker, 36-year-old villager Min Yingjun, is now in police custody, said the officer, who declined to give her name, as is customary among Chinese civil servants.
A Guangshan county hospital administrator said the man first attacked an elderly woman, then students, before being subdued by security guards who have been posted across China following a spate of school attacks in recent years. He said there were no deaths among the nine students admitted, although two badly injured children had been transferred to better-equipped hospitals outside the county.
Why are schools so often the target? Because the attacker knows that’s a place with maximum horror value, and therefore big time publicity?
Maybe, if it’s random and one is going for maximum effect. That might have been part of the equation, but the incident in CT had a personal angle to it.
I think the global progressives are programming young men starting in grade school. The young man gets a phone call later in life where he hears a dark voice on the other end, that dark voice just says one CODE WORD. Then the young man’s eyes glaze over, he then arms himself including body armor and proceeds to commit his rampage. The global progressives only call on these young men during times of political turmoil, when they need the public to cry out for gun control.
That is my conspiracy theory, I don’t believe in coincidences in an environment where the global progressives feel then are about to reach the end zone, and in an environment where we see other attempts to turn the public against the second amendment like fast and furious.
A knife-wielding man injured 22 children and one adult outside a primary school in central China
Uh-oh. I bet the Chinese can produce mass murderers for a lot less than we can. Here’s another area where they’re going to steal American jobs.
“…injured 22 children and one adult outside a primary school in central China…”
Injured, not killed. Knives are less technically efficient killing implements than guns are.
Thank goodness for the 7 day cooling off period for swords or that could have been much worse!
Seriously, though, they have to register to buy butcher knives there because there have been so many knife attacks, especially on kids.
What kind of deranged mad man kills children?
Im outraged I tell ya!
Just outraged!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zf8bnYF-WxE
A Festivus miracle!
Vodka ’saved’ elephants in Siberian freeze
BBCNews
Two elephants have been saved from the deadly Siberian cold by drinking vodka, Russian officials say.
They say the animals had to be taken out into the bitter cold after the wooden trailer they were travelling in caught fire in the Novosibirsk region.
The elephants, aged 45 and 48, suffered frostbite to the tips of their ears amid temperatures of -40C (-40F)
But they were warmed up by two cases of vodka mixed with warm water, one official was quoted as saying.
“They started roaring like if they were in the jungle! Perhaps, they were happy,” the official told Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency.
The animals continued their recovery in a heated garage of a local college where they were brought by a truck under police escort.
Good item