The store that I work in has a large front window, so large that calling it large does it no justice. It consists of about 40 yards of glass along Florida Ave and then turns the corner and there’s another 20 yards of glass fronting the driveway to the WalMart Market. I see all kinds of things looking out those windows, many of them unbelievable at first, and some of the things I thought were unbelievable a year ago, seem very normal now. Every morning a large (30-50) group of day laborers (read illegal immigrants) congregate half a block to the south, sort of between the Home Depot and the WalMart parking lots. Some days some of them get picked up to do some work, some days some of them get picked up by ICE. It’s an odd contrast, when an old E150 or a pick-up truck pull up and stop they all run to it, hoping to get chosen ... I imagine that they have mouths to feed, that they need the work. When the police cars and the ICE cars pull up they all run away from the spot, some of them run to the adjacent bus stop and pretend that they are just waiting for the bus. It doesn’t work. The bus stop is also fascinating, it drops of hundreds of people in generic blue medical worker scrubs, they parade by in small groups all day long, on their way to the school that sits just north of my corner, on the other side of Busch Blvd. Apparently there is a major shortage of x-ray technicians, because this school is turning them out by the thousands. Directly across the street from the bus stop is Chicks, a small yellow building that looks like a little house, but is the neighborhood strip club. Every afternoon a fleet of taxi cabs and boyfriends drop the dancers off in the parking lot. It’s a little far off to say for sure, but I think its safe to say that the girls are all train wrecks. In the median of Florida Ave is where the real characters are, the beggars, the homeless, the mentally ill. They have little signs, some of them sell water bottles that they bought with their EBT for a dollar, some of them just beg for money, most of them use my bathroom. Maybe I shouldn’t let them, but they don’t pee next to my dumpster any more, so I think it’s worth it. Almost every day one of them has a fresh piece of cardboard and comes in to ask to borrow a magic marker. I always tell them I do not have one. Every time they come in they all complain about each other ... they’re all lazy, they all lie on their signs, they all are ruthless and unprincipled ... according to their peers. Their fellow median workers. There’s one, a woman, who loves to talk. She tells us about her boy friend and people that we don’t know, she complains that she doesn’t make enough money, she complains about the heat, she complains when it’s not hot that it hurts water sales, she complains even when someone gives her a twenty for a bottle of luke warm water. The median used to belong to “Happy” the Clown. “Happy” is insane. The other median workers call him simply “the clown” with a sneer. The clown is a disaster, he used to dance on the median for money with full clown face paint, a sleeveless undershirt painted pink and green, white jean shorts painted pink and green, all of it stained and dirty and faded and he held a sign that said “Happy’s my name and clownin’s my game”. His real name is Craig, he’s from New York, but lived in Ohio for a long time. He gets arrested ... often. One of his part time jobs away from the median is stealing bicycles and selling them. At least once a week he rides by on a bike carrying a couple of other bikes, it looks difficult, but he just pedals on down the street. A few months ago he came in and told me he was done with the median. He had found this girlfriend and she had an EBT card and he had his EBT card and she lived with her dad who was old and sick and got social security ... Happy had been living there three days. At first he was excited about it, but as he was telling the tale he admitted that the girl and the dad drove him nuts ... he was going to go and commit himself to take a brake. He just goes to the county hospital and tells them that he wants to kill people and they check him in for a while. Then he laughs (does he want to kill people?) He tells me that he used to say that he wanted to kill himself, but then they watch you all night long and it’s hard to sleep, so he changed his story to being homicidal ... the homicidal get treated with more respect than the mere suicidal, he explains. There are some people who are extremely visible ... like Michael McKinney. Everyone has there own name for him, most people have no idea who he is ... McKinney is an ex-professional boxer who lives in the area and dances up and down the street every day, at least he used to. His dance is part shadow boxing, part praise strut ... would you like to see it? You can, just click here http://youtu.be/3sp6n83YWk8 .Most people think he’s homeless ... he’s not. Most people don’t know that he’s been arrested for DUI more times than anyone can count, that he lost his license years ago ... most people just see him out dancing and think it’s funny. The best part though is that he and the Clown hate each other and when he dances by and the Clown is on the median they scream insults at each other. They each crave the spotlight, even if it’s just being the biggest freak show around. Lately McKinney has taken to pan handling a few blocks north, he still dances, but he stays on the one corner, and what he once did for free, now he’s getting paid to do.
There are others who are invisible ... like “Cup-Cup”. “Cup-Cup” is a paranoid schizophrenic (as far as I can tell) he comes to my store every day for a cup of coffee, and he brings all of his friends ... the one’s in his mind. He’s trapped and he gets stuck on words, which is how he got his name, for a while every time he came in he just repeated the word “cup” over and over at an uncomfortably loud volume. It’s been a while since he did that though, mostly now he argues with his friends and when they get to arguing, “cup-cup” uses a string of profanity that you could not believe unless you heard it. Lately we have decided to try to get through and get him to talk to us ... it’s not working, but today when I said good morning he tried to ask if the coffee was ready. Some days when he leaves one of his friends will stay behind and then he has to come back and open the door and shout, “Come on! We ain’t got all day.” while holding the door for the straggler to get through.
So imagine my surprise last week when I saw something that shocking out my window ... something that took me completely off guard. If you were to walk out my front door and look to the left there is a WalMart Market (which is grocery store ... WalMart without all the fun stuff), and from that direction a early 90's Buick LeSabre drove into view, it was charcoal gray, and as it came to the stop sign at Florida Ave I noticed that the trunk was open ... and someone was in it. In the trunk I mean. Now, had the vehicle just pulled out onto the street this wouldn’t have been all that unusual ... just another weird thing in a neighborhood that is filled with weird things. But as the Buick was about to pull out onto the street, the man in the trunk jumped out of the vehicle and began yelling at the driver. He was average height and slender but muscular, he was wearing jean shorts and a sleeveless undershirt (“wife beater”), he continued yelling at the driver until he came up to the passenger side front window, and then the driver lurched the car forward. Like a flash he ran to the rear of the car and in a single movement leapt into the trunk. There was a yellow rope tied to the trunk deck that he grabbed a hold of, and the vehicle lurched forward again forcing the trunk deck down on top of his head. He let out a yell and jumped out of the trunk, he stood behind the vehicle with his arms raised out to the side ... and he just stood there for a second. The vehicle jumped back towards him and he reached into the trunk, grabbed a hold of some bags and threw them on to the sidewalk, the vehicle again reversed (the driver apparently trying to flatten the man) but he simply kneeled onto the rear bumper, continued flinging bags onto the ground and when the driver brought the vehicle to a sudden halt he stepped back onto the ground, the vehicle lurched at him again and he kneeled on the bumper again. It was as if they had rehearsed it, a ballet of road rage and man. The Buick then drove forward about 5 feet and the man returned to the front passenger side window. There was no yelling, he leaned over an it looked as if he and the driver were talking, he stood back up and the Buick drove off down Florida Ave with the trunk open, its previous occupant strolled off down the sidewalk as if nothing had ever happened.
We went outside to clean up the mess. As we approached we saw that the bags were groceries from the WalMart Market, a broken milk jug poured its contents into the street, a box of rice krispies was torn apart and the wind was disbursing the krispies like dandelion fuzz, there was lunch meat and cheese, two loaves of bread, yogurt ... food for a family for an entire week was strewn all over the corner, smashed. We got a large black garbage bag and started loading up the mess to take it to the dumpster when a Ford Explorer pulled up to the corner and stopped and an older man shouted from his open window, “What cha’ got there?”
I explained what happened.
“Groceries?” he asked “what cha’ gonna do wit dem groceries.”
“Throw them out.” I explained.
“No need, no need” he leaned over and opened his passenger rear door “load ‘em up here.”
“There’s a broken jug of milk in here.” I said holding up the garbage bag. The car behind the Explorer leaned on its horn.
“They’re gonna learn to wait.” the man said laughing, “now load that bag in here.”
I shrugged and put the garbage bag into his back seat and shut the door.
The man looked past me to the guy behind me, “What cha’ doin’ wit that?” he pointed to an undamaged 2 liter bottle of fruit punch he had under his arm.
“I’m keeping it.” my guy answered.
“No ya’ ain’t.” the man told him. The car behind him honked again, prompting him to giggle again. “Give that fruit drink here,.”
My guy handed it to him. “Thank ya now.” he said. And the Explorer drove off down Florida Ave.
And we went back inside and back to work. We shook it off like we shake everything off, added it to a long list of the odd, and unusual and the down right strange. I don’t tell these stories because no one believes them, hopefully the McKinney video helps, I tried to find a picture of the Clown but I couldn’t.
Hope you enjoyed your minute on the corner of Florida and Busch.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Pioneer Spirit
It was not that long ago that people from all over the world uprooted their families, boarded crude ships, and sailed off to meet the unknown. The suffered through illness and rough seas, bad weather and a long voyage. They were going to America, the land of opportunity, a place where land could be bought, a place where there was no real-estate monopoly controlled by the nobility, a place where a person could make their own way in the world. And still more recently, the exact same phenomenon happened with a westward migration, families traded sailing ships for covered wagons and braved the unknown wilderness to make their own way in the world. In either case, when they arrived at their destination, it was not a town, or city, or established place. They built their own homes from nothing, they planted their own crops, raised their own animals, and not only did they survive, they thrived. I’m not a historical revisionist, there were problems, of course there were. Lack of medical personnel led to other wise preventable deaths from disease, drought, crop failures ... life was not ideal, things were not perfect, survival required hard work and sacrifice, but that is not the point. The point is that the spirit of this nation was founded by these people, “pioneer spirit” means seeking your own place in the world, relying upon yourself to make that place habitable, and in extreme cases, relying upon your neighbors or your church for minor assistance. You are descended from people who took chances, who relied upon themselves, who trusted in the provision of a loving God, who worked hard, who made necessary sacrifices, and who survived. Stop and think about it for a minute, think about the phenomenal determination and strength and sheer will required ... well, would you pack up your family and drag them off through the unknown to the possibility of a better opportunity? Brave the wilderness?
So ... what in the world happened?
What bizarre collection of circumstances could take an entire people group from an extreme rugged individualism to what we have today, let’s be honest with ourselves, the prevailing response to adversity is to look around and see “who is going to handle this for me”. The obvious question has to be how we got from one to the other, and how do we find our way back. We, as a nation, face the economic realities of the “nanny state” and the enviable end to the services that people have come to rely upon. (If you don’t believe this to be true, please do some global economic research ... and no, AARP and the Democratic Party are not sources for truth in this case)There are those who suggest that the journey from A to B is a grand design, a multigenerational conspiracy designed to turn the United States into the Soviet Union ... and I’m sorry, but that’s not what happened. There are and have been people who have that vision, and they surely have advocated for the nation to head that direction ... but there never have been enough of them to do anything alone. I maintain that the American people were dragged off of the frontier and into public housing through a series of short sighted decisions made by weak willed politicians hoping to bring home enough bacon to be reelected ... to then go back to the capital and have to spend their next term figuring out another way to bring home even more the next time, and on and on, right up to the edge of the financial precipice that we now find ourselves on.
Year after year, bill after bill, the government has added more and more to the list of things that they hand out and provide. You NEED them all, right? “What would people do without food stamps/ college loans/ medicaid/ medicare/ disability benefits/ subsidies/ tax credits/ WIC/ etc, etc, etc. They would all starve to death in the street.” I tried to get statistics of people dying in the street prior to the advent of social programs, but couldn’t find any. These programs allow people to disconnect from their neighbors, to stop going to church, be “independent”. They allow the American people to look to Washington DC to search to the answers to their problems instead of looking deep within themselves. Of course God had to disappear ... Because without God there are no unalienable rights endowed to us by the Creator, there is no need to work hard, to be charitable, to help your neighbor. Government programs rob you of your liberty, of your true nature as a self reliant pioneer child of God, of the money that you could put to good charitable use, and your community of the ability to be proactive and responsible.
I’m quite sure that Social Security sounded pretty neat when they came up with it. It was simple, you pay into a trust fund your entire working life and then when you retire, you get your money back, right? Well ... no, but that is how it was proposed. In reality SSA pays out much, much more than it takes in, and then the question becomes, for how long? There is only one concrete answer ... not forever. And the rigidity of today’s weak willed politicians, their refusal to be the stewards of bad news, their concern with their own political futures, their insistence on letting the next guy deal with it, will make the transition from “nanny state” to forced individualism sudden, abrupt and it will most likely be accompanied by wide spread violence and chaos. You have been told not to worry about saving, that the SSA is going to take care of you, you have been told to buy a bigger and better house, and then a bigger and better one after that, you reinvest the equity, stay in debt, and you don’t actually own anything at all, and medicare has filled a void that the market would have filled. There is no such thing as lifetime health insurance, or retirement health insurance, every insurer assumes that they only have to deal with you until you’re old enough for a little of that “free” health care. The worrisome part in all of this is that you are not a jack of all trades, you have trained your entire life for a career that may fall woefully short of meeting your needs in the future. If it proved necessary could you build your own home, plant your own crops, raise your own animals? Are you so dependant on the modern life and the State that you cannot fend for yourself?
We do not have to wait for the United States to follow in Greece’s footsteps. We do not have to wait for forced austerity measures, we do not have to let the inevitable be a shock to our children. We can reclaim the “pioneer spirit” for ourselves, we can become the rugged individualists that live with in us. Instead of looking around for the State to step in and solve problems and come to the rescue, we can solve our own problems, we can save our own money, we can help our neighbors and family when they need it. I know everyone wants to get their benefits, but what you have to admit to yourself is that you do not NEED them. You are descendent of the great frontiersmen who tamed this land, who made this country great, the ability to look within , to depend on no one and to persevere lives within you. We can choose to make the government irrelevant, to shake them to their very core. If no one applied to receive food stamps and WIC, if no one lined up for unemployment benefits, if we turned to each other instead of Washington in our times of need, if we worked harder, if we sacrificed more ... we could right this ship, we could put the government out of business. It is within our power to choose liberty and it is within our power to restore the pioneer spirit of this great nation and these great people. Washington spends because the people clamor for more, because there is no end to the hands held out waiting for “assistance”, deprived of that it would all come to a halt. The government of a liberated, self reliant people would find little to do and even less to spend money on. We need to have insight into necessity in order to be a free people, look around and do what is required, make do with less, give more and do it cheerfully ... and when we have stood on our own two feet, when the pioneer decedents show that they are an independent and free people, then we can force Washington to change, to rescind the powers it has taken for itself, to return to protecting the life, liberty and property of it’s citizens and nothing more. We must earn the title “Free” and it is bought and paid for with sacrifice and determination. It lives within you.
So ... what in the world happened?
What bizarre collection of circumstances could take an entire people group from an extreme rugged individualism to what we have today, let’s be honest with ourselves, the prevailing response to adversity is to look around and see “who is going to handle this for me”. The obvious question has to be how we got from one to the other, and how do we find our way back. We, as a nation, face the economic realities of the “nanny state” and the enviable end to the services that people have come to rely upon. (If you don’t believe this to be true, please do some global economic research ... and no, AARP and the Democratic Party are not sources for truth in this case)There are those who suggest that the journey from A to B is a grand design, a multigenerational conspiracy designed to turn the United States into the Soviet Union ... and I’m sorry, but that’s not what happened. There are and have been people who have that vision, and they surely have advocated for the nation to head that direction ... but there never have been enough of them to do anything alone. I maintain that the American people were dragged off of the frontier and into public housing through a series of short sighted decisions made by weak willed politicians hoping to bring home enough bacon to be reelected ... to then go back to the capital and have to spend their next term figuring out another way to bring home even more the next time, and on and on, right up to the edge of the financial precipice that we now find ourselves on.
Year after year, bill after bill, the government has added more and more to the list of things that they hand out and provide. You NEED them all, right? “What would people do without food stamps/ college loans/ medicaid/ medicare/ disability benefits/ subsidies/ tax credits/ WIC/ etc, etc, etc. They would all starve to death in the street.” I tried to get statistics of people dying in the street prior to the advent of social programs, but couldn’t find any. These programs allow people to disconnect from their neighbors, to stop going to church, be “independent”. They allow the American people to look to Washington DC to search to the answers to their problems instead of looking deep within themselves. Of course God had to disappear ... Because without God there are no unalienable rights endowed to us by the Creator, there is no need to work hard, to be charitable, to help your neighbor. Government programs rob you of your liberty, of your true nature as a self reliant pioneer child of God, of the money that you could put to good charitable use, and your community of the ability to be proactive and responsible.
I’m quite sure that Social Security sounded pretty neat when they came up with it. It was simple, you pay into a trust fund your entire working life and then when you retire, you get your money back, right? Well ... no, but that is how it was proposed. In reality SSA pays out much, much more than it takes in, and then the question becomes, for how long? There is only one concrete answer ... not forever. And the rigidity of today’s weak willed politicians, their refusal to be the stewards of bad news, their concern with their own political futures, their insistence on letting the next guy deal with it, will make the transition from “nanny state” to forced individualism sudden, abrupt and it will most likely be accompanied by wide spread violence and chaos. You have been told not to worry about saving, that the SSA is going to take care of you, you have been told to buy a bigger and better house, and then a bigger and better one after that, you reinvest the equity, stay in debt, and you don’t actually own anything at all, and medicare has filled a void that the market would have filled. There is no such thing as lifetime health insurance, or retirement health insurance, every insurer assumes that they only have to deal with you until you’re old enough for a little of that “free” health care. The worrisome part in all of this is that you are not a jack of all trades, you have trained your entire life for a career that may fall woefully short of meeting your needs in the future. If it proved necessary could you build your own home, plant your own crops, raise your own animals? Are you so dependant on the modern life and the State that you cannot fend for yourself?
We do not have to wait for the United States to follow in Greece’s footsteps. We do not have to wait for forced austerity measures, we do not have to let the inevitable be a shock to our children. We can reclaim the “pioneer spirit” for ourselves, we can become the rugged individualists that live with in us. Instead of looking around for the State to step in and solve problems and come to the rescue, we can solve our own problems, we can save our own money, we can help our neighbors and family when they need it. I know everyone wants to get their benefits, but what you have to admit to yourself is that you do not NEED them. You are descendent of the great frontiersmen who tamed this land, who made this country great, the ability to look within , to depend on no one and to persevere lives within you. We can choose to make the government irrelevant, to shake them to their very core. If no one applied to receive food stamps and WIC, if no one lined up for unemployment benefits, if we turned to each other instead of Washington in our times of need, if we worked harder, if we sacrificed more ... we could right this ship, we could put the government out of business. It is within our power to choose liberty and it is within our power to restore the pioneer spirit of this great nation and these great people. Washington spends because the people clamor for more, because there is no end to the hands held out waiting for “assistance”, deprived of that it would all come to a halt. The government of a liberated, self reliant people would find little to do and even less to spend money on. We need to have insight into necessity in order to be a free people, look around and do what is required, make do with less, give more and do it cheerfully ... and when we have stood on our own two feet, when the pioneer decedents show that they are an independent and free people, then we can force Washington to change, to rescind the powers it has taken for itself, to return to protecting the life, liberty and property of it’s citizens and nothing more. We must earn the title “Free” and it is bought and paid for with sacrifice and determination. It lives within you.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
This and That
This post is brought to you by the strength and determination to spend hours per day, year after year trying to make your paralyzed body walk. Rob Summers, hat’s off to you my friend. Every news account I have seen on this acts like they electrocuted him and he walked. Uh ... no. Try six years of daily intensive physical therapy that began with four years of having people move his feet on a tread mill while he was held up in a harness, followed by the implant and then two more years of therapy ... Rob’s refusal to surrender inspires me. I pray that his dream of running is fulfilled.
Ok, on to the stuff that we have to really talk about. Harold Camping has predicted that the world will end tomorrow. And in 1994. I think that next time he will predict it for after his own death because this has to be getting embarrassing. Harold Camping is an idiot and I am glad that people are having fun laughing at him, still it reminds me that we all need to be sure that we are right with God because we do not know when the end will come ... that said I’ll talk to you all on Sunday.
Borders. Borders change. I promise, they change all the time, and depending on where you are, they aren’t always that clear. Usually borders change following a violent conflict, look at a map of Europe before and after WWI for a good example. Apparently the President of the United States thinks that borders change because he wants them to ... they do not. Let me preface this by saying that I pray every day that the Israelis and the Palestinians will come to a peaceful agreement and that they can live in harmony, whether that be cohabitation or in two separate states, I just pray for peace. I want nothing more than for the Palestinian people to not live in fear of assaults by the IDF, not to live in the poverty created by the embargo, to be an unoccupied, free people. I understand why they lash out and attack the Israelis. I want nothing more than for the Israeli people not to live in constant fear of rocket attacks, or invasion, or of suicide bombers blowing up women and children at the market. I would love for Israel to be a nation of peace. I understand why Israel uses retaliation as a deterrent, in understand why the election to power of an organization that is sworn to destroy them has led to an embargo. Facing the violence of the other they are both right to defend themselves. It gives me hope when they agree to meet and discuss peace, even if it goes no where, both sides are showing that they want peace. I pray that it comes, that they can agree, but as far as the border goes, that is not for an American president to dictate. You have to understand, in the mid 60's Syria and Lebanon tried to cut off Israel’s water supply, In 1967 they fought a war against Egypt, Syria and Lebanon (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Algeria sent troops) and they gained large amounts of land in the process. In 1973 they were attacked and held the borders where they were. And on and on and on. Israeli men and women have fought and died for those borders, for that land ... does President Obama mean to suggest to their families that the fight was for nothing, that the sacrifices were meaningless? It seems that he does. And it must be said that if the President feels that it is somehow wrong to move to a new place, push the natives off the land that they live on and then violently defend that land from their desire to regain it he need not look to Israel to right a wrong. He can call for a return of the 1619 borders here in the United States, return the country to the Native Americans who occupied it before being brutally forced off of it and into the reservations that they still occupy. Just a thought.
RIP Macho Man.
Wasn’t it President Obama who repeatedly said that President Bush was a buffoon and could not possibly be any worse when it came to international relations? That the world hated us because of Bush? That the wars were Bush’s fault? Can someone please explain to me why we are fighting a war in Lybia, why Egypt gets billions to continue repression, why our ally Bahrain is killing its own people, Syria has become an absolute slaughter (much worse than Lybia but with out the oil) our relationship with Pakistan has about completely collapsed (Pakistan just got 50 fighter jets from China, oh goodie) our pals in Yemen are fighting two different civil wars, and Mexico has become the “killing fields” of our generation? Where’s all the great diplomacy we were promised? Honestly I didn’t vote for Obama, we greatly differ on the role of the federal government, but even I thought the wars would really end, that he would build relationships with other nations, not ignore and destroy them. This is out of control.
In investment news, ladies and gentlemen, if a company earns $0.17 per share and shows no signs of building revenue ... that company is not worth $97 per share. Have we learned nothing from Red Hat? Please stop being stupid and allowing your greed to control our economy.
Happy Friday!
Ok, on to the stuff that we have to really talk about. Harold Camping has predicted that the world will end tomorrow. And in 1994. I think that next time he will predict it for after his own death because this has to be getting embarrassing. Harold Camping is an idiot and I am glad that people are having fun laughing at him, still it reminds me that we all need to be sure that we are right with God because we do not know when the end will come ... that said I’ll talk to you all on Sunday.
Borders. Borders change. I promise, they change all the time, and depending on where you are, they aren’t always that clear. Usually borders change following a violent conflict, look at a map of Europe before and after WWI for a good example. Apparently the President of the United States thinks that borders change because he wants them to ... they do not. Let me preface this by saying that I pray every day that the Israelis and the Palestinians will come to a peaceful agreement and that they can live in harmony, whether that be cohabitation or in two separate states, I just pray for peace. I want nothing more than for the Palestinian people to not live in fear of assaults by the IDF, not to live in the poverty created by the embargo, to be an unoccupied, free people. I understand why they lash out and attack the Israelis. I want nothing more than for the Israeli people not to live in constant fear of rocket attacks, or invasion, or of suicide bombers blowing up women and children at the market. I would love for Israel to be a nation of peace. I understand why Israel uses retaliation as a deterrent, in understand why the election to power of an organization that is sworn to destroy them has led to an embargo. Facing the violence of the other they are both right to defend themselves. It gives me hope when they agree to meet and discuss peace, even if it goes no where, both sides are showing that they want peace. I pray that it comes, that they can agree, but as far as the border goes, that is not for an American president to dictate. You have to understand, in the mid 60's Syria and Lebanon tried to cut off Israel’s water supply, In 1967 they fought a war against Egypt, Syria and Lebanon (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Algeria sent troops) and they gained large amounts of land in the process. In 1973 they were attacked and held the borders where they were. And on and on and on. Israeli men and women have fought and died for those borders, for that land ... does President Obama mean to suggest to their families that the fight was for nothing, that the sacrifices were meaningless? It seems that he does. And it must be said that if the President feels that it is somehow wrong to move to a new place, push the natives off the land that they live on and then violently defend that land from their desire to regain it he need not look to Israel to right a wrong. He can call for a return of the 1619 borders here in the United States, return the country to the Native Americans who occupied it before being brutally forced off of it and into the reservations that they still occupy. Just a thought.
RIP Macho Man.
Wasn’t it President Obama who repeatedly said that President Bush was a buffoon and could not possibly be any worse when it came to international relations? That the world hated us because of Bush? That the wars were Bush’s fault? Can someone please explain to me why we are fighting a war in Lybia, why Egypt gets billions to continue repression, why our ally Bahrain is killing its own people, Syria has become an absolute slaughter (much worse than Lybia but with out the oil) our relationship with Pakistan has about completely collapsed (Pakistan just got 50 fighter jets from China, oh goodie) our pals in Yemen are fighting two different civil wars, and Mexico has become the “killing fields” of our generation? Where’s all the great diplomacy we were promised? Honestly I didn’t vote for Obama, we greatly differ on the role of the federal government, but even I thought the wars would really end, that he would build relationships with other nations, not ignore and destroy them. This is out of control.
In investment news, ladies and gentlemen, if a company earns $0.17 per share and shows no signs of building revenue ... that company is not worth $97 per share. Have we learned nothing from Red Hat? Please stop being stupid and allowing your greed to control our economy.
Happy Friday!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
50 cents
I grew up a long time ago, in a forgotten age, when mothers stayed home with their children and kept house and fathers worked Monday thru Friday and were home in time for dinner. Mothers would prepare ingredients and make a meal and the entire family would sit down and eat together, discuss the day’s events and sometimes even share a freshly baked dessert together afterwards. “When was that?” you ask? Just before the Civil War.
On the weekend my father would start his day with a cup of coffee (decaf, little sugar, little half and half) and the news paper. I would sit and have my breakfast, feet dangling six inches above the floor, and watch and listen. He would read each page, carefully folding the paper in half at every turn of the page, and scoff and “humph”, and “huh” at seemingly every article. I did not understand it then, but his disapproval of the paper’s contents was glaringly obvious. Occasionally the paper he referred to as the “Times Useless” would include an editorial by George Will or Thomas Sowell and my father would have me read it and then explain it’s contents to him. I think it was an exercise in comprehension, but even then he didn’t want me influenced by the left wing of the OP ED universe.
As a grown man I have grown disgusted with newspapers, antiquated disasters of omissions and poorly thought out opinions passed off as fact, chock full of editors’ mistakes and amateur writing ... they are essentially useless. People who hunger for news have wandered from the printed daily and found elsewhere what they were searching for. Their sins are too numerous to list. An 80 word story on page 8 briefly telling that a soldier shot and killed a pregnant woman, in her own home, through a picture window, in broad daylight. Upon his acquittal of all charges a full half front page, above the fold, detailing a riot in the same town. No mention of the cause, no mention of the dead woman and baby, no mention of the murderer set free. The New York Times once published a daily 2 page fluff piece of hero worship for Laurent Kabila, heralding his great civil war in Zaire ... somehow while praising “the great hope for Africa” they forgot to include anything about his lifelong ambition to create a Marxist dictatorship, they failed to mention the atrocities his soldiers committed along their bloody march to the capital, no one felt it necessary to include anything about the American corporation financing the whole thing in exchange for mineral rights ... just “rah-rah Democratic Republic of the Congo” which, once founded was neither democratic nor a republic. And after it was all said and done, after Kabila had become the very dictator he replaced, no apology, no retraction ... and utterly no credibility. I can keep going. I won’t.
I still buy the paper ... I sit and read it, often in front of my kids while drinking coffee (caffeinated, black) I scoff at its contents and laugh at the obvious disaster that it has become. Why do I bother? It comes to this, there is no smell in the world like the mental time machine inducing odor that wafts from a newly opened newspaper. That smell instantly transports me 22 years and 800 miles to my father’s lap, trying to understand George Will’s analysis of the Berlin Wall coming down. Through all the obvious lies and through every editor’s attempt to misinform, through all the tragic writing that passes for journalism, there are only 2 smells in the world that transform me into a contented 10 year old being taught life by one of the grandest fathers there ever was, newspaper and saw dust. It’s a stroll down memory lane that is well worth the price of admission, so the Tampa Tribune can have my scorn ... and my 50 cents.
On the weekend my father would start his day with a cup of coffee (decaf, little sugar, little half and half) and the news paper. I would sit and have my breakfast, feet dangling six inches above the floor, and watch and listen. He would read each page, carefully folding the paper in half at every turn of the page, and scoff and “humph”, and “huh” at seemingly every article. I did not understand it then, but his disapproval of the paper’s contents was glaringly obvious. Occasionally the paper he referred to as the “Times Useless” would include an editorial by George Will or Thomas Sowell and my father would have me read it and then explain it’s contents to him. I think it was an exercise in comprehension, but even then he didn’t want me influenced by the left wing of the OP ED universe.
As a grown man I have grown disgusted with newspapers, antiquated disasters of omissions and poorly thought out opinions passed off as fact, chock full of editors’ mistakes and amateur writing ... they are essentially useless. People who hunger for news have wandered from the printed daily and found elsewhere what they were searching for. Their sins are too numerous to list. An 80 word story on page 8 briefly telling that a soldier shot and killed a pregnant woman, in her own home, through a picture window, in broad daylight. Upon his acquittal of all charges a full half front page, above the fold, detailing a riot in the same town. No mention of the cause, no mention of the dead woman and baby, no mention of the murderer set free. The New York Times once published a daily 2 page fluff piece of hero worship for Laurent Kabila, heralding his great civil war in Zaire ... somehow while praising “the great hope for Africa” they forgot to include anything about his lifelong ambition to create a Marxist dictatorship, they failed to mention the atrocities his soldiers committed along their bloody march to the capital, no one felt it necessary to include anything about the American corporation financing the whole thing in exchange for mineral rights ... just “rah-rah Democratic Republic of the Congo” which, once founded was neither democratic nor a republic. And after it was all said and done, after Kabila had become the very dictator he replaced, no apology, no retraction ... and utterly no credibility. I can keep going. I won’t.
I still buy the paper ... I sit and read it, often in front of my kids while drinking coffee (caffeinated, black) I scoff at its contents and laugh at the obvious disaster that it has become. Why do I bother? It comes to this, there is no smell in the world like the mental time machine inducing odor that wafts from a newly opened newspaper. That smell instantly transports me 22 years and 800 miles to my father’s lap, trying to understand George Will’s analysis of the Berlin Wall coming down. Through all the obvious lies and through every editor’s attempt to misinform, through all the tragic writing that passes for journalism, there are only 2 smells in the world that transform me into a contented 10 year old being taught life by one of the grandest fathers there ever was, newspaper and saw dust. It’s a stroll down memory lane that is well worth the price of admission, so the Tampa Tribune can have my scorn ... and my 50 cents.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
OPEN YOUR EYES!
The United States Constitution is a document divided into seven sections detailing the rights and powers of government. Once written it could not be passed into law because it did not contain the rights of the people. The American people and their leaders in the 13 state houses would not allow themselves to be subjects again, to go back to living under a government that did not guarantee liberty to the people.
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government."
Patrick Henry
The Bill of Rights was the compromise, it defines in no uncertain terms, the rights of the people. The inalienable rights held by all mankind. You might even be familiar with some by their number, the second amendment is often refered to by name, and it states. “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Which does not say that you have the right to protect yourself from robbers with a hand gun, it says that you have the right to arm yourself and band together with your neighbors to protect liberty from the government! The fourth amendment is also essential and basic, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” It says that agents of the state cannot enter your home, search you, search your things, look through your papers or documents unless a judge issues a detailed warrant supported by sworn testimony. It says that you are a free person to conduct your private affairs in private as you please, it says that you are to be free from government intrusion, it says that your house and your pockets are all within your castle. Please read them all. They are your rights. It is the document that forms the skeleton of your liberty, and if you are ignorant of the details of your rights, liberty will be stolen from you without protest. What do you think of the Michigan Militia? Or militias in general? Do you think that they are all suspicious of the government? Preparing to fight if necessary? God I hope that they are, we all should be. The state is not your ally, it is the enemy of your liberty.
"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin
Do you know how Adolph Hitler went from elected official to Fuhrer? Someone burned the parliament building and he declared that it was the work of communist terrorists, requiring special, temporary powers to return Germany to safety from this threat.
Liberty is not a word, it is not a quaint feeling to place upon a shelf to decorate for the 4th of July, LIBERTY is the soul’s ability to breathe free, liberty is the most sacred think on this earth, it needs to be tended to and cared for and loved and defended ... even to the death. What did Patrick Henry say? “Give me liberty or give me death” and he wasn’t joking around, he really meant that he would fight to the death for liberty, his liberty, your liberty. He wasn’t alone in that sentiment.
"Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it."
John Adams
A century of being spectators to the political process has left our liberty a shell of what it once was, slowly, ever so slowly the state has whittled away at it. They have convinced you that they are not your adversary, that you need them to provide for you. Provide what? We are a great nation of free men, the sweat of our brow is taxed from us and then given back to us and we are to be grateful? We are such fools that we accept these bribes in the place of our liberty? We allow our children to be ignorant consumers?
"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson
Lethargy is the forerunner to the death of the public liberty. NFL football and beer and gadgets and computer games and tabloid news and Oprah. When is the last time our rulers were warned that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Sadly there is no spirit of resistance, when the wrongs stack up so high that they block out the nourishing light of the sun we line up like sheep and “vote ‘em out”. We actually believe that it is our only recourse.
Right now, at this very moment, the people of Indiana should be out in the streets, marching to the State House with torches and rifles, the people of every other state should be doing the same in solidarity and as a warning to our own states and courts. Do you even know why? The media that you trust to keep you informed has kept you in the dark. The Supreme Court of the state of Indiana has ruled that the Bill of Rights is null and void, that it is out dated and no longer necessary, they have ruled that your liberty is an antiquated idea that no longer serves any purpose, that you are not secure in your house and that the rights of the State supercede any rights that you might have. Rulers need to be warned!
A man was arrested for resisting the illegal entry into his home by the police, they had no probable cause and they had no warrant. The court found that, “A right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest.” Against public policy? It is not only your right to defend you liberty, it is your duty to defend your liberty and the liberty of all of your brothers and sisters. So while the nation sits on the sofa and watches NFL labor negotiations, and American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and the NBA playoffs... The treasure of the republic, the very thing must all band together to defend was stabbed in the heart without any pomp or circumstance.
Do you believe that public policy has any value at all, that it out weighs the very liberty that makes this nation great?. Friends, do not fall victim to the thinking that it is just Indiana, these thoughts and decisions are coming to your state as well and every time they act unchallenged the enemies of the liberty endowed to you by our Creator become stronger and more brash and more bold.
It is not guns that they want to take from you, it is your means to resist. Where they have failed to seize our means to resist, they now look to seize our right to resist. No matter the ruling of the court, it is your duty to resist the state, or agents of the state, making any attempt to invade your home. Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition to the state. Look around and ask yourself, are we becoming more free as a people or are we becoming less free? Are we free to resist the state?
It is a question that is more important than any other, and it is high time that we drew a line in the sand, enough is enough. I, for one, would trade a whole lot more “security” for slightly more liberty. Every time the state forces its way into your life it pushes freedom out of your life. Please, wake up and demand that your God given rights be held as sacred by your elected officials, or by God, let them know that the will be facing your wrath, the wrath of a righteous, armed, free people determined to preserve liberty for all of posterity.
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government."
Patrick Henry
The Bill of Rights was the compromise, it defines in no uncertain terms, the rights of the people. The inalienable rights held by all mankind. You might even be familiar with some by their number, the second amendment is often refered to by name, and it states. “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Which does not say that you have the right to protect yourself from robbers with a hand gun, it says that you have the right to arm yourself and band together with your neighbors to protect liberty from the government! The fourth amendment is also essential and basic, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” It says that agents of the state cannot enter your home, search you, search your things, look through your papers or documents unless a judge issues a detailed warrant supported by sworn testimony. It says that you are a free person to conduct your private affairs in private as you please, it says that you are to be free from government intrusion, it says that your house and your pockets are all within your castle. Please read them all. They are your rights. It is the document that forms the skeleton of your liberty, and if you are ignorant of the details of your rights, liberty will be stolen from you without protest. What do you think of the Michigan Militia? Or militias in general? Do you think that they are all suspicious of the government? Preparing to fight if necessary? God I hope that they are, we all should be. The state is not your ally, it is the enemy of your liberty.
"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin
Do you know how Adolph Hitler went from elected official to Fuhrer? Someone burned the parliament building and he declared that it was the work of communist terrorists, requiring special, temporary powers to return Germany to safety from this threat.
Liberty is not a word, it is not a quaint feeling to place upon a shelf to decorate for the 4th of July, LIBERTY is the soul’s ability to breathe free, liberty is the most sacred think on this earth, it needs to be tended to and cared for and loved and defended ... even to the death. What did Patrick Henry say? “Give me liberty or give me death” and he wasn’t joking around, he really meant that he would fight to the death for liberty, his liberty, your liberty. He wasn’t alone in that sentiment.
"Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it."
John Adams
A century of being spectators to the political process has left our liberty a shell of what it once was, slowly, ever so slowly the state has whittled away at it. They have convinced you that they are not your adversary, that you need them to provide for you. Provide what? We are a great nation of free men, the sweat of our brow is taxed from us and then given back to us and we are to be grateful? We are such fools that we accept these bribes in the place of our liberty? We allow our children to be ignorant consumers?
"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson
Lethargy is the forerunner to the death of the public liberty. NFL football and beer and gadgets and computer games and tabloid news and Oprah. When is the last time our rulers were warned that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Sadly there is no spirit of resistance, when the wrongs stack up so high that they block out the nourishing light of the sun we line up like sheep and “vote ‘em out”. We actually believe that it is our only recourse.
Right now, at this very moment, the people of Indiana should be out in the streets, marching to the State House with torches and rifles, the people of every other state should be doing the same in solidarity and as a warning to our own states and courts. Do you even know why? The media that you trust to keep you informed has kept you in the dark. The Supreme Court of the state of Indiana has ruled that the Bill of Rights is null and void, that it is out dated and no longer necessary, they have ruled that your liberty is an antiquated idea that no longer serves any purpose, that you are not secure in your house and that the rights of the State supercede any rights that you might have. Rulers need to be warned!
A man was arrested for resisting the illegal entry into his home by the police, they had no probable cause and they had no warrant. The court found that, “A right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest.” Against public policy? It is not only your right to defend you liberty, it is your duty to defend your liberty and the liberty of all of your brothers and sisters. So while the nation sits on the sofa and watches NFL labor negotiations, and American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and the NBA playoffs... The treasure of the republic, the very thing must all band together to defend was stabbed in the heart without any pomp or circumstance.
Do you believe that public policy has any value at all, that it out weighs the very liberty that makes this nation great?. Friends, do not fall victim to the thinking that it is just Indiana, these thoughts and decisions are coming to your state as well and every time they act unchallenged the enemies of the liberty endowed to you by our Creator become stronger and more brash and more bold.
It is not guns that they want to take from you, it is your means to resist. Where they have failed to seize our means to resist, they now look to seize our right to resist. No matter the ruling of the court, it is your duty to resist the state, or agents of the state, making any attempt to invade your home. Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition to the state. Look around and ask yourself, are we becoming more free as a people or are we becoming less free? Are we free to resist the state?
It is a question that is more important than any other, and it is high time that we drew a line in the sand, enough is enough. I, for one, would trade a whole lot more “security” for slightly more liberty. Every time the state forces its way into your life it pushes freedom out of your life. Please, wake up and demand that your God given rights be held as sacred by your elected officials, or by God, let them know that the will be facing your wrath, the wrath of a righteous, armed, free people determined to preserve liberty for all of posterity.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Apology and a Story
I want to apologize. In my last post I said, “ I tell this story to point to the public workers that want so badly to be treated fairly ... we have been your customer, I’m sure all of us have, you get no sympathy because you are what we say you are, inefficient, lazy, unempathetic and you move at the speed of tectonic plates. It didn’t take you 6 months to protest budget cuts, did it?” The point I was trying to convey is that the rules are designed poorly and that procedures make action impossible. I got a bit off topic and I would like to say that there are many passionate and capable people working in public service and I know many of them personally. I apologize for the portrayal of your work ethic and motives in this light. Surely there are lazy incompetents in government and their actions give you a bad name. I shouldn’t add to this and so I am sorry. Ok, are we cool now? Good, here’s a funny story.
Let us take a trip in the “Way Back Machine” to 2003. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, you still had to actually prove you were a good risk to get a mortgage loan. My wife and I bought a house. You may not remember, but in 2003 the facts were as follows: real estate is the safest investment in the world, after getting married and having children you bought a house, in a 10 years, after you had saved some money and the house had appreciated, you would sell it and buy a bigger house, home ownership was a thrilling step in the American Dream. I know that all sounds very quaint and silly now, but in 2003, it was gospel.
The strangest thing happened, in 2004 instead of the usual 5-7% increase in my home’s value it was more like 50% and then in 2005 the value of my home doubled. We didn’t really know what to make of it all. I joked to my wife that we should sell the house, find a cheap apartment and sit on the $120,000 until the whole thing came apart and we could buy a mansion. We laughed and laughed! Fall apart, yeah right, I mean, home values might not increase by as much next year, but they aren’t ever going to go down ... we even went house shopping. Business was good, and with the prices going up so fast we thought we should hurry and buy something before it got so high we could never afford it. And then it all fell apart. We all looked to the banks and the government to do something, to fix it, to stop the collapse. The circled the wagons and took care of each other.
The job losses and the business failures and the foreclosures were staggering. My neighbor’s company folded, he tried to start his own company and it lasted a while, but finally he had to find a job, and he did. In Baltimore. Facing the prospect of losing tens of thousands of dollars in equity if he sold, he decided to rent out his house. The first tenant seemed ok, but after two months stopped paying rent. It took six months to evict him and then my neighbor had to fly back and spend two days fixing and cleaning and painting and steaming carpets. During the time that my neighbor was here fixing his house he was approached by the son of our neighbor across the street. This son is a forty-something father of 5 (or maybe more?) who does not work, but assured my neighbor that he was about to be getting social security disability and would be able to pay. I feel compelled to add here that the man is not from this country, and has not ever held a regular job the entire time he has been in the United States. My neighbor said no and that besides that he was not making the decisions, as his real estate company was acting as property manager and would find a tenant. However, he could apply and see if he met their criteria. He didn't meet the criteria. My neighbor moved. The house became rented to what appeared to be a normal, nice person. Then about a week later there was the neighbor from across the street living there too! Turned out the person who rented it was a friend of the nieghbor from across the street and he had rented it for them to be roommates. I called my old neighbor to let him know what was going on, he was not pleased. Well, all went well for a couple months until the friend left the neighbor there alone and moved away. Now the man who wasn't qualified to rent the house, had the house to himself. According to my original neighbor (the homeowner), at first he got the rent checks, and then the excuses came as often as payment, and then the tenant stopped answering the phone. This man often came to my door late in the evening to ask if he could borrow my electricity, or my water, and I wondered how my neighbor was managing his own rent in Baltimore and his mortgage down here.
I have never asked him about it, but I think one day he realized that the property was not going to recover, that the housing market wasn’t coming back as they assured us it was going to, that he couldn’t afford to go through another eviction process and he just let the property go. It took a while but eventually the notice came to the house that it was going to be auctioned off. The tenant was angry that he would have to get out, that he didn’t get the proper notice, or maybe just that the gravy train was finally stopped.
While this was going on the neighborhood deteriorated. Little by little the grass in front of the empty houses grew, fences fell down, bushes grew to block doorways. Eventually the foreclosed upon left angry and you would drive by homes that suddenly had no trees in the yard, hedges missing, as if a tiny tornado had come in the night. A business sprung up, a club really. You pay dues and then are provided a list of addresses, locations of empty homes ... a squatter’s road map. So we began getting new neighbors, strange people, strange vehicles, odd hours kept.
The tenant found his own business in this mess, I wonder how common it is. Last week he began moving out. I asked him when he and his children were going to go. As it turns out he moved around the corner, another home owner had to move and needed a tenant until the home values rebound, and so he was going over there. He told a sob story about how he was paying rent and the homeowner didn’t pay the mortgage, he spun himself as the victim of all of it, and her got himself a new start, a new home owner to make excuses to, a new homeowner whose phone calls he will soon ignore. But that’s not the interesting part, or the business. Last night I came home and there was a strange vehicle parked next door. As I was going in a man and a woman came out of the house, my neighbor’s house. They smiled at me, “Hello,” they said, “we’re your new neighbors.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah, we’re renting the house from Eddie.” the man informed me.
Eddie is not my neighbor, Eddie is the deadbeat, able bodied disability collecting bum who drove my neighbor into foreclosure ... I thought for a minute if I should let the new residents know that they were being conned, that the eviction notice was coming, maybe any day. I just smiled and went inside.
The SOB has lived rent free for the better part of two years, and now he has turned it into an income property! Talk about profit margins! It’s a scheme that would make Wall Street and Washington proud ... these are some strange times we’re living in.
Let us take a trip in the “Way Back Machine” to 2003. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, you still had to actually prove you were a good risk to get a mortgage loan. My wife and I bought a house. You may not remember, but in 2003 the facts were as follows: real estate is the safest investment in the world, after getting married and having children you bought a house, in a 10 years, after you had saved some money and the house had appreciated, you would sell it and buy a bigger house, home ownership was a thrilling step in the American Dream. I know that all sounds very quaint and silly now, but in 2003, it was gospel.
The strangest thing happened, in 2004 instead of the usual 5-7% increase in my home’s value it was more like 50% and then in 2005 the value of my home doubled. We didn’t really know what to make of it all. I joked to my wife that we should sell the house, find a cheap apartment and sit on the $120,000 until the whole thing came apart and we could buy a mansion. We laughed and laughed! Fall apart, yeah right, I mean, home values might not increase by as much next year, but they aren’t ever going to go down ... we even went house shopping. Business was good, and with the prices going up so fast we thought we should hurry and buy something before it got so high we could never afford it. And then it all fell apart. We all looked to the banks and the government to do something, to fix it, to stop the collapse. The circled the wagons and took care of each other.
The job losses and the business failures and the foreclosures were staggering. My neighbor’s company folded, he tried to start his own company and it lasted a while, but finally he had to find a job, and he did. In Baltimore. Facing the prospect of losing tens of thousands of dollars in equity if he sold, he decided to rent out his house. The first tenant seemed ok, but after two months stopped paying rent. It took six months to evict him and then my neighbor had to fly back and spend two days fixing and cleaning and painting and steaming carpets. During the time that my neighbor was here fixing his house he was approached by the son of our neighbor across the street. This son is a forty-something father of 5 (or maybe more?) who does not work, but assured my neighbor that he was about to be getting social security disability and would be able to pay. I feel compelled to add here that the man is not from this country, and has not ever held a regular job the entire time he has been in the United States. My neighbor said no and that besides that he was not making the decisions, as his real estate company was acting as property manager and would find a tenant. However, he could apply and see if he met their criteria. He didn't meet the criteria. My neighbor moved. The house became rented to what appeared to be a normal, nice person. Then about a week later there was the neighbor from across the street living there too! Turned out the person who rented it was a friend of the nieghbor from across the street and he had rented it for them to be roommates. I called my old neighbor to let him know what was going on, he was not pleased. Well, all went well for a couple months until the friend left the neighbor there alone and moved away. Now the man who wasn't qualified to rent the house, had the house to himself. According to my original neighbor (the homeowner), at first he got the rent checks, and then the excuses came as often as payment, and then the tenant stopped answering the phone. This man often came to my door late in the evening to ask if he could borrow my electricity, or my water, and I wondered how my neighbor was managing his own rent in Baltimore and his mortgage down here.
I have never asked him about it, but I think one day he realized that the property was not going to recover, that the housing market wasn’t coming back as they assured us it was going to, that he couldn’t afford to go through another eviction process and he just let the property go. It took a while but eventually the notice came to the house that it was going to be auctioned off. The tenant was angry that he would have to get out, that he didn’t get the proper notice, or maybe just that the gravy train was finally stopped.
While this was going on the neighborhood deteriorated. Little by little the grass in front of the empty houses grew, fences fell down, bushes grew to block doorways. Eventually the foreclosed upon left angry and you would drive by homes that suddenly had no trees in the yard, hedges missing, as if a tiny tornado had come in the night. A business sprung up, a club really. You pay dues and then are provided a list of addresses, locations of empty homes ... a squatter’s road map. So we began getting new neighbors, strange people, strange vehicles, odd hours kept.
The tenant found his own business in this mess, I wonder how common it is. Last week he began moving out. I asked him when he and his children were going to go. As it turns out he moved around the corner, another home owner had to move and needed a tenant until the home values rebound, and so he was going over there. He told a sob story about how he was paying rent and the homeowner didn’t pay the mortgage, he spun himself as the victim of all of it, and her got himself a new start, a new home owner to make excuses to, a new homeowner whose phone calls he will soon ignore. But that’s not the interesting part, or the business. Last night I came home and there was a strange vehicle parked next door. As I was going in a man and a woman came out of the house, my neighbor’s house. They smiled at me, “Hello,” they said, “we’re your new neighbors.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah, we’re renting the house from Eddie.” the man informed me.
Eddie is not my neighbor, Eddie is the deadbeat, able bodied disability collecting bum who drove my neighbor into foreclosure ... I thought for a minute if I should let the new residents know that they were being conned, that the eviction notice was coming, maybe any day. I just smiled and went inside.
The SOB has lived rent free for the better part of two years, and now he has turned it into an income property! Talk about profit margins! It’s a scheme that would make Wall Street and Washington proud ... these are some strange times we’re living in.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Predictions, Dems lie and Government Stinks
Here’s the short, short version of a personal story. My daughter was sick as a baby, we took her to the doctor over and over and over and over and ...(you get the idea?) The doctor told us it was allergies and then it was a cold and then allergies and when the fevers started it was an ear infection and prescribed amoxycillin. When the fevers got worse and her breathing deteriorated we took her to a different doctor who sent us to the pediatric ER. We were worried about the fevers and the breathing (it turns out the breathing issues were caused by double pneumonia, RSV and the fever) and had no idea that the whole ear thing was caused by a VIRAL ear infection. The ER doc shot her up with steroids, sent us home with oral steroids, and prescribed steroidal breathing treatments. Also told us to go to an ENT to have her hearing checked ... tests revealed she was stone deaf, and probably had been for most of the 7 months we were taking her to the idiot doctor. Not so short story short, she is ineligible for the Olympics and can hear fine (little surgery fixed that) and is 3 and has speech issues. But that’s not what I came here to tell you about The county we live in offers “free” speech therapy to PK age children. We took her in November to be evaluated. After making twice weekly phone calls for 4 months we got her a second evaluation in March. She failed both. The 5 to 6 weeks until she would meet with a therapist turned into 9 weeks, a multitude of phone calls later we were told that the first appointment was in 18 days. “Can’t we bring her sooner?” No. There is a rule, you see, parents must be given at least 14 days notice of a child beginning speech therapy. “Can we wave that?” Yes, yes you can. You could come in tomorrow if you want to. REALLY! Come to find out we need a million documents to enter the school, birth certificate, SS card, shot record ... would have been nice to know in November ... or March ... or last week. So the county offers a program that taxpayers pay for, of which I am one, but the rules make it impossible to actually receive the service with out badgering county employees over and over and over and over ... and even then they are off in the summer, so while she failed the evaluation in November and could not have received 6 Months of therapy, instead she will get 4 WEEKS of therapy. I tell this story to point to the public workers that want so badly to be treated fairly ... we have been your customer, I’m sure all of us have, you get no sympathy because you are what we say you are, inefficient, lazy, unempathetic and you move at the speed of tectonic plates. It didn’t take you 6 months to protest budget cuts, did it? Oh, and I guess the first part is for doctors, most of you stink too!
I’m going to let Kevin Glass tell you about the Democrats “Democrats are constantly railing against "the rich" and Wall Street, but the biggest "fatcats" are some of their biggest donors. One of the heaviest hitters is Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who maxed out donations for John Kerry, Harry Reid, Blanche Lincoln, Chuck Schumer and others. Disney CEO Robert Iger and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also went big for Democrats. The two in the past gave $75,000 combined to the festivities surrounding Barack Obama's nomination and their giving was heavily slanted this election cycle toward Democrats. In fact the top twenty CEOs invested heavily in Democrats, giving 55% more in campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.” So do you still think that they’re serious about getting all that “dirty millionaire” money and giving it to the poor? Oh. Yeah, I’m not so sure either. I don’t think that CEO’s are going to support anyone without some assurances. Can you say BAILOUT?
But now what you’ve all been hankering for, my predictions for the next year. That’s right it’s time for the first annual prediction post! Ihey ’m no Nostradamus, but here goes. Greece’s economy is going to completely collapse and they are going to default. This will prompt Ireland and Portugal to do the same thing, the value of the Euro will plummet and in full on panic mode response the EU is going to kick the three of them out and there will be huge bank runs because nobody wants to get stuck with the worthless Kroner. Riots, chaos, you know, the usual. The revolts in northern Africa are going to settle back down and the people there will go back to being ruled by crazy people and there will be no democracy and there will be no civil rights. The UN will have had enough of Quadaffi and authorize a full scale invasion to remove him. Lybia will rejoice and then elect a leader who will be replaced in a coup de e’tat by their next dictator for life. Bloody civil war will break out in The Ivory Coast, or Chad or Zimbabwe or Uganda or Somalia or all of them... But Sudan will come to a peaceful resolution and divide into two nations that live in harmony. Obama and Hillary Clinton will continue to say that we will not invade Yemen (18 months after we invaded Yemen) while we deploy more and more special forces “advisors” to Saudi Arabia’s neighbor. Let’s not forget sports, everyone loves sports! Phil Jackson will unretire, the Mets will continue to bring shame to NYC and the Yankees will not win the world series. For all my Tampa readers, the Bucs will lose the 12 games they should have lost last year ... and all the games will still be blacked out.
Happy Tuesday!
I’m going to let Kevin Glass tell you about the Democrats “Democrats are constantly railing against "the rich" and Wall Street, but the biggest "fatcats" are some of their biggest donors. One of the heaviest hitters is Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who maxed out donations for John Kerry, Harry Reid, Blanche Lincoln, Chuck Schumer and others. Disney CEO Robert Iger and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also went big for Democrats. The two in the past gave $75,000 combined to the festivities surrounding Barack Obama's nomination and their giving was heavily slanted this election cycle toward Democrats. In fact the top twenty CEOs invested heavily in Democrats, giving 55% more in campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.” So do you still think that they’re serious about getting all that “dirty millionaire” money and giving it to the poor? Oh. Yeah, I’m not so sure either. I don’t think that CEO’s are going to support anyone without some assurances. Can you say BAILOUT?
But now what you’ve all been hankering for, my predictions for the next year. That’s right it’s time for the first annual prediction post! Ihey ’m no Nostradamus, but here goes. Greece’s economy is going to completely collapse and they are going to default. This will prompt Ireland and Portugal to do the same thing, the value of the Euro will plummet and in full on panic mode response the EU is going to kick the three of them out and there will be huge bank runs because nobody wants to get stuck with the worthless Kroner. Riots, chaos, you know, the usual. The revolts in northern Africa are going to settle back down and the people there will go back to being ruled by crazy people and there will be no democracy and there will be no civil rights. The UN will have had enough of Quadaffi and authorize a full scale invasion to remove him. Lybia will rejoice and then elect a leader who will be replaced in a coup de e’tat by their next dictator for life. Bloody civil war will break out in The Ivory Coast, or Chad or Zimbabwe or Uganda or Somalia or all of them... But Sudan will come to a peaceful resolution and divide into two nations that live in harmony. Obama and Hillary Clinton will continue to say that we will not invade Yemen (18 months after we invaded Yemen) while we deploy more and more special forces “advisors” to Saudi Arabia’s neighbor. Let’s not forget sports, everyone loves sports! Phil Jackson will unretire, the Mets will continue to bring shame to NYC and the Yankees will not win the world series. For all my Tampa readers, the Bucs will lose the 12 games they should have lost last year ... and all the games will still be blacked out.
Happy Tuesday!
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