1

Animals in Chicago gang rape a 14 y.o girl

 

The article says they can be sentenced to 6 to 30 years. They can thank their lucky stars that they are in IL. If they were in SC they would be guilty of two crimes, lynching and rape of a child. The first charge would get them the 30 year thing, the second qualifies for the death penalty here.

2 Gabe is up and at it early this morning.

3 The global warming cult has NOT given up. My local rag today has another story about 2010 being the hottest year on record, even as we just dug out of another foot-plus snowstorm in downstate NY. They will never give up.

4 no words:

Italian PM accused of sex with 17yo prostitute, covering it up

5 Loughner's black bag found

it contained copies of Sarah Palin's book lots of ammo

6

Hallelujah!

The billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds pumped into Pennsylvania have lessened the impact of the recession on the state's families and funded projects that will pay dividends for years to come, Gov. Ed Rendell said Thursday.

"The stimulus has worked," Rendell said at a news conference he called on the topic. "It's not popular to say that. It may not even have the ring of truth about it. But the stimulus has worked. It has worked to help Pennsylvania families weather the storm, and it's worked to help to create and protect jobs." 

7

Jury nullification at its worse

I'm all for jury nullification. It is my firm belief that the founders did intend for it to be used to nullify abusive prosecution and bad laws.

That being said this kind of shit gives it a bad name. Here a jury lets a murderer go with conclusive DNA evidence. Its shades of OJ all over again except they use a really stupid defense that had no bearing on the case at all.

The founders also intended for jurors to act responsibly. I guess like they depended on voters to act responsibly.

8 It may not even have the ring of truth about it.

Fake but accurate!

9 Well, surprise surprise, it's shades of Katrina all over again:

Officials could have used broad involuntary commitment law to have Loughner evaluated mentally, but didn't

so the administrators at Pima Community College, where professors feared for their safety, could have done something about it, but dropped the ball

I say if you're going to blame anyone (other than Loughner himself) for contributing to the tragedy, start with (a) his parents, and (b) the Pima CC administrators who did nothing

10 Why is it "shades of Katrina"?

11 you have to wonder: what were his parents doing, when Loughner was getting expelled from community college (and not over grades, either), getting busted for pot, and building skull shrines in the backyard?  And where did he get the money for the Glock when he couldn't even hold down a min. wage job?

12 I say if you're going to blame anyone (other than Loughner himself) for contributing to the tragedy, start with (a) his parents, and (b) the Pima CC administrators who did nothing

Posted by: chemjeff at January 14, 2011 07:25 AM (PaSAU)

I have to go find a statement I read somewhere made by a Pima CC counselor on an incident report about Loughner.  It'll explain why nothing was done.  Complete psycho-babble.

13 Vic, for local authorities bungling on their obligations, then blaming everyone else for what happened

14 It was in a Washington Post article. 

When Siddall asked Loughner about what had happened in class, he said his comments were only about math, according to a memo she wrote. For example, he said, "My instructor said he called a number 6 and I said I call it 18." The counselor concluded that the student had a "unique ideology that is not always homogeneous."

WTF?

15 Tami, well the Yahoo article said that professors feared for their safety and wanted security posted outside their classrooms, which is a little more than questioning whether 6 = 18

16 13 Vic, for local authorities bungling on their obligations, then blaming everyone else for what happened
Posted by: chemjeff


And a willing media keeping it in a overplayed leftarded frame of ammo agin them rascally right wingers...don't waste a opportunity to promote a lie.

17 ya know, for once I'd like to see any public official, say just once, "yeah, I screwed up, I didn't do my job, I apologize and I resign"

18

"you have to wonder: what were his parents doing, when Loughner was getting expelled from community college (and not over grades, either), "

Probably in denial. When I was in college, a grad student killed his ex-girlfriend and threw her in a dumpster. You'd always see this guy around campus wearing a blue turtleneck and camo pants. Never saw him wearing anything else.  Apparently, this kid had a shrine to the girl in his room prior to the killing. The roommate called his parents and told him the guy was sick and acting very strange.  The parents told the roommate he's probably better off moving out of the room. The roommate moved out and a few weeks later the cops were on campus arresting the fucker.

19 Vic, for local authorities bungling on their obligations, then blaming everyone else evil Republicans for what happened

FIFM

20 Happy Friday, M&Ms. One more day through which to slog, then football and naps tomorrow. Well, and chores, but use the naps to avoid those.

21 That worthless counselor is part of the I'm ok/you're ok horseshit that gets people killed.  That should've been a clear signal that the simpleton's brain wasn't working correctly and not only didn't belong in class where he'd disrupt it with that wack shit but needed to be evaluated to find out just what made the asshole tick.  Massive failure by that dumbass and also by his fucked up parents.  Well done, assholes.

22 3 The global warming cult has NOT given up. My local rag today has another story about 2010 being the hottest year on record, even as we just dug out of another foot-plus snowstorm in downstate NY. They will never give up.

Posted by: real joe at January 14, 2011 07:08 AM (w7Lv+)

Indeed I have not given up!!!...how else will I be able to fund my Empire!

23 Vic, for local authorities bungling on their obligations, then blaming everyone else for what happened
Posted by: chemjeff

Posted by: chemjeff at January 14, 2011 07:27 AM (PaSAU)

And a willing media keeping it in a overplayed leftarded frame of ammo agin them rascally right wingers...don't waste a opportunity to promote a lie.

Posted by: beanervt at January 14, 2011 07:34 AM (1IUpO)

Yeah, I guess there are a lot of similarities. The MFM still promotes all the lies about Katrina. Will they be doing the same years after this one.

That is what happens when lies go unanswered. THAT was Bush's biggest failure. He and Rove set the Party label back by leaps and bounds.

24 21 That worthless counselor is part of the I'm ok/you're ok horseshit that gets people killed.  That should've been a clear signal that the simpleton's brain wasn't working correctly and not only didn't belong in class where he'd disrupt it with that wack shit but needed to be evaluated to find out just what made the asshole tick.  Massive failure by that dumbass and also by his fucked up parents.  Well done, assholes.

Posted by: Captain Hate at January 14, 2011 07:39 AM (olKiY)

Hmmmm, you seem to be full of hate...why, even your Nic has the word hate in it;  my door and couch is always open and available.

25 "The stimulus has worked," Rendell said at a news conference he called on the topic. "It's not popular to say that. It may not even have the ring of truth about it. But the stimulus has worked. It has worked to help Pennsylvania families weather the storm, and it's worked to help to create and protect jobs." 

Posted by: Ed Anger at January 14, 2011 07:13 AM

Hmmm...in December 2008 the unemployment rate in Pennsylvania was 6.1% and now it's 8.1%.  Yeah things are definitely improving.  /s  Actually the only stimulus projects in PA I'm familiar with were renovations at local parks and all they did was give over-time to currently employed public workers and hired a few temps.

26 18

"you have to wonder: what were his parents doing, when Loughner was getting expelled from community college (and not over grades, either), "

Denial is really strong in parents.  NOBODY wants to believe their child is capable of murder.  He is 22 years old.. they have no control over him.  They cant make him go get psycological help.

27 13 Vic, for local authorities bungling on their obligations, then blaming everyone else for what happened

This right here.  This is why we've heard so much about vitriolic rhetoric.  The Sheriffs Dept. needs a fall guy because as it is they're the ones that weren't doing their jobs.  When you've go class mates pointing out that he could go off and professors worried about getting shot you can't tell me that everyone just passed the buck as this kid flew under the radar.  He was a big blip on the radar screen so much so that the school demanded he get  psych-eval before being able to return.  His parents knew about it as well. 

28 Posted by: Captain Hate at January 14, 2011 07:39 AM (olKiY)

well, part of the problem is the academic culture of "not wanting to judge", part of the problem is the general cluelessness that people in higher ed have about rules and laws generally, and the general conceit that crazy people can do great things, and so why should they stop them - why, just look at Van Gogh, he was crazy!!!

29

Denial is really strong in parents.  NOBODY wants to believe their child is capable of murder.  He is 22 years old.. they have no control over him.  They cant make him go get psycological help.

Posted by: Timbo at January 14, 2011 07:43 AM (ph9vn)

umm - well, yes they can, if their son is still living under their roof.

30 That worthless counselor is part of the I'm ok/you're ok horseshit that gets people killed.

Colleges, though, have taught themselves to embrace horseshit deconstructionism like '6 is 18,' or 'America is the most unjust society EVAR,' or 'Communism ROCKS' because spouting horseshit masquerading as enlightenment is just so intellectual, y'know?

And they have all kind of violent talk there, too, with revolution and The Man, the patriarchy, Che, etc.

What they had here though, was someone who actually WAS nuts, not just posing for intellectual effect. 

31 26 18

"you have to wonder: what were his parents doing, when Loughner was getting expelled from community college (and not over grades, either), "

Denial is really strong in parents.  NOBODY wants to believe their child is capable of murder.  He is 22 years old.. they have no control over him.  They cant make him go get psycological help.

Posted by: Timbo at January 14, 2011 07:43 AM (ph9vn)

We don't seem to be getting the usual anal-exam from the MSM of the parents...hmmmmm, why would that be?

32 The counselor concluded that the student had a "unique ideology that is not always homogeneous.

Are you also divergent, my friend?

33 From Instapundit:

In his 1991 book, “Monetary Mischief,” Friedman concludes from his lifelong study of monetary policy that there is a pattern in the lags.

Six to nine months after an injection to the money supply, there is a short-term increase in economic activity. After 24 months, inflation appears and is persistent until money growth is slowed, another recession occurs, and 24 months pass before the inflation is abated.

If these lags are superimposed on the nationÂ’s political calendar, there is a disturbing conclusion.

A short-term increase in economic activity will occur before the 2012 presidential election, and a virulent inflation will occur after the votes are in.

Read the whole thing. I wonder, however, if FriedmanÂ’s timetable still holds true in our more tightly-coupled era.
---------

From what I'm seeing inflation is already here and the only thing QE2 is stimulating is the latest bubble.

And it appears that the 24 month lag time observed by Friedman has shrunken to about 24 days.

34 And here I thought the Progressives' policies were so intellectually superior and effective that, with a snap of their fingers, they could have taken Jared and molded him into the next Obama.  Why didn't they do this? Are the Progressives racist?

35 Add this to your list of jobs you don't want:
 
County road crew fired at from across Mexican border
 
There is even a ghost town in the story.

36 Colleges, though, have taught themselves to embrace horseshit deconstructionism like '6 is 18,' or 'America is the most unjust society EVAR,' or 'Communism ROCKS' because spouting horseshit masquerading as enlightenment is just so intellectual, y'know?

And they have all kind of violent talk there, too, with revolution and The Man, the patriarchy, Che, etc.

What they had here though, was someone who actually WAS nuts, not just posing for intellectual effect.

I bet this is especially true in artsy-fartsy towns like Tucson, where you have a lot of wanna-be artists running around, and artists as a general rule see the world in, shall we say, a "unique perspective"

not to take anything away from the artist AoSHQ morons here, but the artists I have met in real life, they aren't nuts, but when you see their work, you have to wonder to yourself, "what WAS going through their heads???"

37 34 And here I thought the Progressives' policies were so intellectually superior and effective that, with a snap of their fingers, they could have taken Jared and molded him into the next Obama.  Why didn't they do this? Are the Progressives racist?

Clearly, Sarah Palin and SB 1070 are to blame

38 Abe Vigoda:  still alive

39

why, just look at Van Gogh, he was crazy!!!

Posted by: chemjeff at January 14, 2011 07:45 AM (PaSAU)

That crazy fuck bit his own ear off. You gotta be really nuts to do that.

40 Speaking of Ed Rendell, hey guess what!? "I spent a lot of money!"

41 33 Ed,
 
The inflation is already here in terms of food and energy. The only thing holding down the calculated inflation rate is the huge decline in housing prices.

42 We can just get a box that says Ebola on it and chase him with the box!

Did I miss some context where that makes sense?

43

Who said this about the Tucson shootings?:

“This resolution is a fitting tribute. It is a great resolution. Please, read it again and again. Carry those names in your heart. Remember, each of these people because, again, a tragic accident took lives, wounded people in the expression of ideas.”

44 The only thing holding down the calculated inflation rate is the huge decline in housing prices.

Posted by: GnuBreed at January 14, 2011 08:01 AM (h0RtZ)

Not true, in the past year there has been no "huge" decline in housing values. There has been a decline in certain metro areas, but it is not uniform all over the country. 

What has held down the calculated values is the lying adm has excluded energy and food from the calculation.

45 What they had here though, was someone who actually WAS nuts, not just posing for intellectual effect. 

Posted by: nickless at January 14, 2011 07:47 AM (MMC8r)

Oh, make no mistake, they are nuts, but in a physically benign, mentally poisonous way. Nobody could spout that tripe 24/7 for that long without some serious handicap concerning reality.

The difference is the shooter was insane, and probably helped along in his delusion by the "intellectuals." His writings are at least two bubbles off plumb, which probably started in his classes.

46

Animals in Chicago gang rape a 14 y.o girl

Apply the Leftist response from Tucson's tragedy to this repetitive Chicago violence. As the Left presumes to speak for the public, their public outcry would be for the banning of all penises. "Tolerant and moderate" people would come to accept the elimination of the penis from a "free" society. 

/sarc off the penis ban, though rapists "deserve" to be surgically neutered since subjecting them to rape-rape themselves as punishment (Deut. styled rape for a rape) only increases their rage to do evil unto others as happened to them, and relying on a rapist's "better nature" is futile, while moral relevancy allows deviancy to permeate society, even to govern society.

47 Prices in central Indiana:
half gallon store brand OJ  $3.49 (featured SALE price)
loaf brand name bread  $2.99
turkey breast $1.49/pound (featured SALE price)
gasoline $3.29/gallon premium

My gas bill (I heat with it) last month was $188.75,  up 10% from last January.  Some of this could be attributable to the colder weather,  but I have insulated areas and sealed windows and am keeping the thermostat below 70.

Prescription prices went up,  too.

48 NRO The Corner had a post that it is reported that we will now lose $19 Billion on the GM bailout.  Funny I don't remember GM saying that in their commercial nor in the MSM coverage of it.  Why is it that banks, who have paid back their TARP's IN FULL, still have to get reviewed by the Treasury with their stress tests where GM, who has not paid back their bailout, continues to operate business as usual?  Couldn't be the unions could it?

49 Why is it that banks, who have paid back their TARP's IN FULL, still have to get reviewed by the Treasury with their stress tests where GM, who has not paid back their bailout, continues to operate business as usual?  Couldn't be the unions could it?

Posted by: CDR M at January 14, 2011 08:11 AM (y67bA)

Shut up...that's why!

50 Why is it that banks, who have paid back their TARP's IN FULL, still have to get reviewed by the Treasury with their stress tests where GM, who has not paid back their bailout, continues to operate business as usual?  Couldn't be the unions could it?

Posted by: CDR M at January 14, 2011 08:11 AM (y67bA)

You got it in 1. The bad thing about is what I have been saying since the unconstitutional foray by the Obama commies, THEY DID NOT FIX THE PROBLEM which was the unions. 

Not only will they not pay back the money because they are still hemorrhaging money, but they will be back for another bailout before Obama gets out of office. 

At that point Obama will spend the rest of the "stimulus" because "its there". The House needs to take that money back ASAP.

51

What has held down the calculated values is the lying adm has excluded energy and food from the calculation.

Posted by: Vic at January 14, 2011 08:05 AM (M9Ie6)

I'm not sure about that -- I think it's the media who are playing fast and loose with the facts.

For some reason all they report anymore is "core inflation", which excludes food and energy. I think the true numbers are out there but the MFM refuses to mention.

They're playing the same game with manufacturing. I don't even think there are two sets of manufacturing numbers but the MFM won't let that pesky detail stop them. I've seen several recent reports that show "gains in manufacturing" followed by the caveat "excluding automobile and airplane manufacturing".

WTF? An automobile is the most expensive manufactured item that most people will buy in their lives and the same goes with airplanes and many businesses.

How can you honestly report on manufacturing while excluding those two categories of manufactured goods?

52 I'm not sure about that -- I think it's the media who are playing fast and loose with the facts.

It is a fact, the government has even admitted it when challenged on it. There was a link in one of the threads weeks ago.

53 Oops, read the rest, never mind.

54 Watching morning joe and thinking to myself "wow, Sarah Palin made her point".  As donny deutsch waxes poetic about "American exceptionalism" and how great we are as a country and the rest of them chime in.  This in response to a story about the guy who "took down" the suspect as being a vet and the doctor who performed the surgery honing his skills in the US Military. 

It been a long time since I"ve heard a true left of center human being, Mika, say anything about how great our country is.  They might criticize Sarah Palin, they may be saying all kinds of horrible things, but their pundits have been forced by her short statement to begin acknowledging how great this country really is.

This of course after joe scarborough said that the other night we saw "the obama we fell in love with".

55 *Ahem*

I think the true numbers are out there but the MFM refuses to mention them.

56 45 Vic,
 
Here's some charts of national housing prices, with some commentary on what they think will happen in 2011. A snippet:
 
We need to continue to watch inventory and months-of-supply closely for hints about house prices. Right now house prices are falling at about a 10% annual rate.
 
Dec. 31 2010

57
umm - well, yes they can, if their son is still living under their roof.

Posted by: chemjeff at January 14, 2011 07:46 AM (PaSAU)

Living under ones roof isnt enough.  He is an adult.

It takes a court order to commit someone.

58 39 That crazy fuck bit his own ear off. You gotta be really nuts to do that.

I think he cut off his own ear...biting it off would take some serious Picasso-esque contortions.

59

Living under ones roof isnt enough.  He is an adult.

It takes a court order to commit someone.

Posted by: Timbo at January 14, 2011 08:21 AM (ph9vn)

I thought I read somewhere that Arizona has a law that you can have someone held for observation for 48-72 hours without their consent.  Or am I making that up?

60
This in response to a story about the guy who "took down" the suspect as being a vet and the doctor who performed the surgery honing his skills in the US Military.

Wars have led to the greatest advances in trauma treatment and reconstructive surgery.

61

"...biting it off would take some serious Picasso-esque contortions."

What if you used someone else's teeth?

62 Posted by: GnuBreed at January 14, 2011 08:21 AM (h0RtZ)

That chart is based on a weighted average of supposedly 20 metropolitan areas. A few weeks ago we had a discussion about those "housing prices" and went straight to the data they used. The reports you see are very misleading. I don't remember exactly which thread it was but you can Bing that actual report fairly easily.

Some metro areas went up during the past year, some went down. The real overall average for the past year was only a small drop caused by a few large metro areas dragging the overall down.

63

The shots from across the border angered U.S. Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco, R-Texas, who represents the area.

"It is completely unacceptable that Americans at work, doing their job in America, come under gunfire from across the border in Mexico," Canseco said in a statement. "Our border is not secure from violence that threatens American lives. Securing our border against the cartels and their violent threat must be a top priority."

GnuBreed, good link.

And Gov. Perry's office failing to respond to inquiries with its own phone calls to the county sheriff for verification, releases its generic response.  TX Biennial Legislature began in earnest. Texas needs its own sovereign state guard, just as CA has organized to be used solely at the discretion of the state governor within the state territory. The Southwest border US citizens are being told to hold their breath and wait 'til their Blue in the face for constitutional protection from the cumulative effect that amounts to a Mexican invasion.

64 I heard Sheriff Dipshit say Loughner was being "well managed" by the mental health system.

Then I read several days later that the mental health system in AZ had no record whatsoever of Loughner.  So Dipshit was covering his butt from the get go, and seemed to always be covering for this family...why?

65 I think he cut off his own ear...biting it off would take some serious Picasso-esque contortions.

No, he bit it.  Police reports showed bites all over his elbows, too.  Even on the back of his knees.

66 Oh man, they're going all in....from BBC:

Wild red deer on a Scottish island have started rutting earlier in the year because of climate change, scientists have suggested. Research by the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh looked at records of deer behaviour on Rum over the last 38 years. It suggests ruts, when males compete for a mate, and calving were now up to two weeks earlier on average. Researchers said this could be because of warmer springs and summers.

67 60 Tami

I got this tidbit from a news article...I have a hell of a time posting links here so here is part of it.

Arizona has some of the most lenient commitment laws to require treatment. While many states require the plaintiff to prove an individual presents imminent danger to himself or others, Arizona’s standard is just based on a person’s “need for treatment.” Further, anybody can petition the courts to have an individual compelled to receive treatment or be institutionalized.
~Caroline May (Daily Caller 1-13-2011)

68 It suggests ruts, when males compete for a mate, and calving were now up to two weeks earlier on average. Researchers said this could be because of warmer springs and summers.

Posted by: Tami at January 14, 2011 08:29 AM (VuLos)

Did they link to the actual study and the methods? If they didn't then it is almost certainly a lie.

69 People even in their thirties, moving back to the family home when they lose their job, is becoming the rule not the exception. Even families are "moving back to the family home or moving in with family"  only no one is really discussing it.

For months, the housing girl on CNBC has been whispering about the "shadow inventory" and what kind of damage it may or may not do to housing prices and the housing market.  she hasn't yet said that said "shadow inventory" has been exhausted nor has she really defined how many houses exist in said "shadow inventory". 

Last night a reporter was a guest on Batchelor.  She was discussing the partnership of s home builder with Martha Stewart to make smaller, green homes.  They were bemoaning the death of the "mcmansion" and discussing the fact that the green homes have open plans, no formal dining room or living room, all open living and saying the houses were about 2100 square feet which is a downsize from the previous median house size of around 2900 square feet.  the house is a prototype house but home buyers from the company that partnered with Martha, I  have to find the article as they have a virtual tour of the house, is allowing current buyers to put any of the "green" upgrades in any house the company is building.  Oh, thought I, how I have longed for an indoor herb garden and a pail for my compost heap right in the kitchen.  They say the home, because it is green is very very much more expensive but costs practically nothing to heat. 
Has anyone had any recent experience with a home loan situation?  Has anyone bought a new home from a builder or refinanced their existing home?  I know what the experiences of my friends have been and, for the most part, it's beenn difficult to refinance and almost impossible to get mortgages.  Wondering if it is like that everywhere.

70 It suggests ruts, when males compete for a mate, and calving were now up to two weeks earlier on average.

Dear greenies:

Gaia's fucking with you.

71 Arizona has some of the most lenient commitment laws to require treatment. While many states require the plaintiff to prove an individual presents imminent danger to himself or others, Arizona’s standard is just based on a person’s “need for treatment.” Further, anybody can petition the courts to have an individual compelled to receive treatment or be institutionalized.
~Caroline May (Daily Caller 1-13-2011)

Posted by: kawfy at January 14, 2011 08:33 AM (lFt0D)

I thought I'd read that somewhere.

72

Did they link to the actual study and the methods? If they didn't then it is almost certainly a lie.

Posted by: Vic at January 14, 2011 08:33 AM (M9Ie6)

Well, I'd argue that it's almost certainly a lie even if they do link to the study but here's the article:

http://tinyurl.com/4bg2gfx

73 Al Gore's rutting season waxes and wanes with his capacity to find a compliant masseuse.

74 Just turned it to Fox for the half-hour update. Commie Chris Wallace on their sucking Obama balls rationalizing an AP poll showing Obama ratings up from Nov to Jan by saying he got a lot of stuff done in Dec on a "bipartisan basis". Had to turn it off before I damaged the TV.

Hey commie Wallace, take his balls out of your mouth and heed this, the election campaign has started and no MFM poll is worth a shit.

And there was NO bipartisern basis in that damn Lame *uck congress. The RINOs and DIABLOs rolled to the commies and gave them everything they wanted by allowing cloture and they rammed it through with only token R votes.

75 63 Vic, well most people in the US live in urban areas. In fact to quote wiki:
 
It is a very urbanized population, with 82% residing in cities and suburbs as of 2008 (the worldwide urban rate is 50.5%).
 
It is of course true that not all areas are affected equally; in DC prices rose (our tax dollars at work) and they did in South Dakota too (oil hot spot). I know our area has seen a decline of around 10% in prices for the last year and those prices were not in the bubble to start with.

76 So what ever became of the story that Loughner was attending the same synagogue as Giffords?  Is that true?

If so, that seems huge.  It implies they may have known each other personally which puts a completely different dimension on everything.

77

Okay morons, I'll ask it again.

Who said this about the Tucson shootings?:

“This resolution is a fitting tribute. It is a great resolution. Please, read it again and again. Carry those names in your heart. Remember, each of these people because, again, a tragic accident took lives, wounded people in the expression of ideas.”

78 @78: Biden?

79
Tunisia:

RIOTS result from Inflation topped with Wikileaks exposure of government corruption by "President for Life" (who replaced the former President for Life, but upon his next birthday will be constitutionally ineligible by age to remain President of Tunisia @ age 75).

Former colonial France remains silent. The US State Dept. reprimands Tunisian administration for denying free speech and mandating tight internet constraints. Tunisian response is "surprise" at US expression for concern. Germany warns that Tunisian rioting will affect consideration from EU membership.

Links at Drudge:

AP News, By ELAINE GANLEY and BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA
Jan. 11, Tues. (interviewing Ben Hassen, Tunisian Facebook member)

"Behind Tunisia Unrest, Rage Over Wealth of Ruling Family"
NYT, By David Kirkpatrick, Jan.13

The country vaunts its modernity as Tunisian women are banned from wearing Islamic head scarves in public buildings and have the right to initiate divorce.  A former interior minister now in his fifth term, Pres. Ben Ali is suspected of wanting to replicate the man he ousted, president-for-life Habib Bourguiba, the founder of modern-day Tunisia. Significantly, the offices of his ruling RCD party, which tightly controls political life, were among the buildings attacked by rioters [as were banks and the private mansions on the beach owned by the president's family].

The police response has been strong, 3000 strong at the center of rioting, shooting to kill rioters angered from unemployment, high inflation, corrupt governance, denial of free speech, and internet censorship.

Today, though their president-for-life won't leave office when he turns 75, he is now rescinding his rhetoric blaming international terrorists for the riots, and promising to lift his ban on open internet access.

Talk the talk? Now walk the walk.

80 78.  Pelosi Galore?

81 Posted by: GnuBreed at January 14, 2011 08:40 AM (h0RtZ)

I don't trust Wiki on much of anything even remotely politically oriented. The population may be concentrated in urban/suburban areas but the housing is not. And as I said, the drop in prices was not uniform during the past year even in their metropolitan survey. It was also not anywhere close to 10% even on the weighted average.

As far as local non-urban areas go it didn't change at all here. There was no bubble and no subsequent drop. 

82 Okay morons, I'll ask it again.

Who said this about the Tucson shootings?:

Do tell.

83 Posted by: Ed Anger at January 14, 2011 08:44 AM (7+pP9)

Someone at the memorial "service"?

84 I'll say anything to garner some brownie points.

85

81 78.  Pelosi Galore?

Posted by: Captain Hate at January 14, 2011 08:46 AM (olKiY)

Hold the phone calls, we have a wiener.

86 #80

maverick muse,  I didn't know that Tunisia was being considered for membership in the EU. 

I can sort fo imagine Turkey,  because at least a small portion of the country is in Europe.  But Tunisia?

Strange.

87 Posted by: Vic at January 14, 2011 08:46 AM (M9Ie6)

the prices in the DC area have gone up, steadily.  Metro DC, Maryland and Virginia.  They appear to be rebuilding infra structure and in the city, after they built that stadium, a lot of properties were knocked down in favor of developing the area around the stadium and the area which was, I'm told, previously a very poor area is changing and upgrading forcing the poor to Maryland.  This is only the thoughts of friends who live there but it makes sense.

I heard a local program saying that "NYC apartment prices are still very high and haven't really taken a hit".  I personally know this is not true.  If you had cash and could buy an apartment in cash, some got quite the bargain.  If  you needed a mortgage you couldn't get one.  A lot of foreign nationals bought apartments in NYC in the last couple of years.

88 Hold the phone calls, we have a wiener.

Posted by: Ed Anger at January 14, 2011 08:52 AM (7+pP9)

I knew that ignorant bint and theological retard had called it an "accident".

89 Guy Arrested for Screwing Dead Woman Well, how the hell was he supposed to tell?

90 all open living and saying the houses were about 2100 square feet which is a downsize from the previous median house size of around 2900 square feet.

curious,

The traditional starter homes range 1200 to 1500 sq. ft.

half full or half empty...

When "It's a good thing" moans about "downsizing the median house size" only having 2100, "it's too plebeian," just cry me a river. 

91

I heard Sheriff Dipshit say Loughner was being "well managed" by the mental health system.

Then I read several days later that the mental health system in AZ had no record whatsoever of Loughner.  So Dipshit was covering his butt from the get go, and seemed to always be covering for this family...why?

IIRC, that one blogger said he was told don't file charges, he's recieving mental health care--don't know who in the Sheriff's Dept. told him that.

No idea how legit that blogger is.

Also, not being part of the state mental health system doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't getting some private treatment.

We'll see.

 

92 If she called it an accident then she must know something the rest of us don't know, she is not a stupid woman, she knows exactly what she says and how she says it.  I've noticed how careful she is with her every word.

93 Who said this about the Tucson shootings?:

Democrats really are ghouls.

94 Miss Marple

Germany warns the unrest could affect Tunisia's "rapprochement with the EU".

Ambiguous re: membership application, only clear that relations between  Tunisia and the EU are strained and in need of reparation.

95 Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 08:54 AM (p302b)

I wished I had saved my work on that other thread. I went to their source data and downloaded their data in spreadsheet form. I blocked out the last full year's data and had it calculate the difference and the overall end product. There was a slight decline in the overall average, but only slight.

As I said, some went up, some went down. What was surprising to me is that the sample areas in CA all went UP! That surprised the shit out of me.

I have no idea where they got the 10% annual decline unless they are counting from the peak in 2007 range till now. One thing though, they didn't give the real average price of the homes in the area, they gave the numbers in some kind of an "index" that using their description I was unable to determine what they meant.

96 Pelosi Galore

Given that Loughner's identity relates to Obama's ideology (Pelosi's ideology), of course now it's an accident.

97 Today is the day we ditch the FUBAR known as Michael Steele. Good riddance to bad performance.

98 Posted by: maverick muse at January 14, 2011 08:59 AM (H+LJc)

I think Martha and the home builder are thinking of their new green prototype as a replacement for the mcmansion which wasted space.  It wasn't Martha, it was a slimes reporter who had done a story.  It was a fascinating listen. 

the complained that really what ups the square footage in a house is all those extra bedrooms which some people covet and others despise.  They said even the bedrooms, if there are 4 or 5 of them will be downsized to fit the new green model.  I laughed cause I know people with two children who have bought 6 bedroom huge mcmansions and have made bedrooms into an office for mom, an office for dad, and an exercise room or upstairs den.  I know of one couple who bought a six bedroom house and made one bedroom into their walk in closet, one bedroom into his office, one bedroom into her office, one bedroom into an exercise room and they stuck their two kids into one bedroom.  I was incredulous.

99 she is not a stupid woman, she knows exactly what she says and how she says it.  I've noticed how careful she is with her every word.

Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 09:00 AM (p302b)

You have got to be kidding me?!

100 The traditional starter homes range 1200 to 1500 sq. ft.

I did some research on that a few years ago as well. I found some government data (pre-Obama) that said over the past 10 years (at the time) the average new home being built had increased from 1700 sq ft to 2100 sq ft.

When I bought my house back at the height of the Carter economy the average size house being built in this area was 1500 sq ft. Hell, you had to be rich to afford that at 18% interest.

101

OMG!  He is so GREAT!  Dear Leader is so powerful they have to change the Zodiac signs!

SACRAMENTO - Astronomer's created quite a stir for astrologers when they pointed out current Zodiac signs are out of date, and could be off by up to a month.

Astronomer's said the Earth's axis doesn't rotate in the same direction all the time; it actually "wobbles" back and forth. The wobble caused a shift on the view of the constellations since they were first charted by the Babylonians 2,000 years ago.

"Everybody needs something to believe in and you know, why not?" Amateur Astronomer Walter Heiges said. "I could tell you every day, this is what's going to happen and if it happens, I'm a hero. If it doesn't happen, well, I screwed up today."

The new Zodiac calendar would add a 13th sign, Ophichus. Ophichus was originally abandoned by the Babylonians because they only wanted 12.

The new Zodiac:
Capricorn: Jan. 20 - Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 - March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18- May 13
Taurus: May 13- June 21
Gemini: June 21- July 20
Cancer: July 20- Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10- Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16- Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30- Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23- Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29- Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17- Jan. 20

102 98 Today is the day we ditch the FUBAR known as Michael Steele. Good riddance to bad performance.

Posted by: maddogg at January 14, 2011 09:06 AM (OlN4e)

the crew on morning joe could barely contain heir joy over this prospect.  Made me a little concerned that maybe this isn't the best move, if the cast of morning joe is rooting for it, it can't be good for Republicans then.

103 she is not a stupid woman, she knows exactly what she says and how she says it.  I've noticed how careful she is with her every word.
Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 09:00 AM (p302b)

I dunno...stupid fits pretty well

104 Posted by: Tami at January 14, 2011 09:08 AM (VuLos)

I am.  Maybe I have to indicate when I'm being funny.  This is my sense of humor, living around all the libs/dems in my blue blue city, the sense of humor is getting dryer and dryer.

105 Olivia Clark Lives One Hour, Taxed $50 for Death; King County Says It Needs the Money (Video)

106 Actually the only stimulus projects in PA I'm familiar with were renovations at local parks and all they did was give over-time to currently employed public workers and hired a few temps.

Posted by: Deanna at January 14, 2011 07:42 AM (xaR1O)

Welcome to State government.  Seriously, I've been flummoxed from the beginning about how anyone could think that the stimulus would create any jobs.  Money that's disseminated to the states is generally used to pay State workers or previously-contracted State contractors to do something in addition to what they're already doing.  There are generally rules about how federal funds cannot be used to supplant existing funds (in other words, if something's already being paid for, you can't change the funding stream just because you're getting new money), but when it comes to "enhancing" or supplementing existing programs, that's generally okay.  You might POSSIBLY get a new project manager here or there, but large scale employment?  Um, no.  Even the so-called "shovel ready" jobs are only going to employ the same people as all the OTHER "shovel ready" jobs that were around before the stimulus ever existed.

107 Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 09:09 AM (penCf)

Someone sent the article to me two days ago in an email.  I should of realized that the email generated enormous comments and then yesterday on Face book everyone was talking about this.  I got to the point where I was sick of the subject.

108 Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 09:11 AM (penCf)

Screw 'em. Living in Seattle, I'm sure the parents are leftards. They should pay their death taxes with a shit eating grin on their faces.

109 So,  if the shooting was an accident,  what does that mean?  Was Loughner a hit man who accidentally shot the other people but botched killing Giffords?

I mean,  Giffords did vote against pelosi,  who was obviously taking names at the time.

This actually would make more sense than blaming Sarah Palin.

110

WTF?  I'm a Leo now?  I was a Virgo. I liked being a Virgo.

It was so me.

111 Haitian Kidnappers Kill an American Federal Agent in Their Quest to Abduct a Child

112

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of living in the U.S. climbed more than forecast in December, led by higher fuel and food prices, while other goods and services showed the smallest annual increase on record.

The consumer-price index increased 0.5 percent, more than the 0.4 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The so-called core rate, which excludes volatile food and fuel costs, rose 0.1 percent, in line with the median projection.

 

Unexpected inflation? In Barry's workers' utopia? Never!

113 Posted by: Dave in Texas at January 14, 2011 09:15 AM (WvXvd)

I think you are still a Virgo.  This new system apparently only applies to babies born now. 

114 Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 09:11 AM (penCf)

That article is purely obscene. I can not understand how people put up with that shit. All to support a socialist government that supports the grasshoppers and the apparatchiks.

In applying the 100 year rule I can only surmise if they had tried that shit 100 years ago the people would have been in the streets with pitchforks and nooses.

I denounce myself now.

115 So I'm a Taurus now? I was a Gemini. Not that it matters.

116 DiT:

You are screwed now boy.  We know you are an AoS mororn and now we can guess your b-day.

We will be there soon.  Please just come out naked with your hands up.

117 Laura Ingraham is hammering Griefapalooza for urging civility while the fucking EPA is shutting down mining permits in West Virginia while nobody is paying attention.  And fuck Bill O'Reilly.

118 she knows exactly what she says and how she says it.  I've noticed how careful she is with her every word.

Tami,

That's not to say that Pelosi speaks honesty. Rather, she's a well crafted liar who knows how to insert a word into the sound bite in order to redirect the public attention for the desired propagandized effect.

1. Obama pronounced the concept of accidental during his Tucson pep rally speech, to think it was a mere coincidence that the Republican-appointed 9th Circuit Federal Judge was assassinated accidentally murdered shot, and accidentally died from the accidental shot that was accidentally fired by an accidentally loaded gun accidentally used by a freak accident of nature whose education accidentally was formulated by Ayers/Obama/Annenberg in Chicago accidentally funded and accidentally promoted for national application. Accidentally by accident...allow the mind to imagine no moral limitations.

2. Pelosi follows up generalizing the entire shooting spree as an accident.

119 Posted by: maverick muse at January 14, 2011 09:19 AM (H+LJc)

And that puts some doubt in everyone's mind.

120 Vic-

My mom said that her greatest fear has been seen.  The government and the media has created a 'system' (she does not go negative well) that Americans risked everything to destroy during the war.

121 f*ck.  How do you guys remember to to change your socks?!

I'm a much better momma than I am a Janet N.

122 I wouldn't call Pelosi a crafted liar. Her whoppers are so galactic they strain the credulity to the breaking point. You have to have drank a bathtub of kool-aid to keep from laughing.

123 So long as it's an accident, those calling it such aren't to blame.

That won't stop those referencing it as an accident from blaming conservatives for the accident.

124 Now Palin's sending out super secret messages.....

From the Examiner:

Most Americans have soundly rejected every crazy idea put forward by the liberal media regarding the root cause of the Arizona shooting.

A new theory is now being advanced by some in the media.

The phrase "blood libel" used by Sarah Palin in her video was really some kind of a super-secret code to be used as a signal to Palin's base.

Jennifer Epstein of Politico writes:

Sarah Palin’s use of the charged term “blood libel” may not have been an accidental blunder, but a deliberate “‘dog whistle” appeal to her evangelical Christian supporters for whom the expression has meaning, commentators and others are saying.An interesting phrase - dog whistle. Either Epstein is alluding to the notion that those who support Palin are little more than dogs, or the phrase is so secret it can only be understood by those who speak her language. Either way, the notion is more than silly, it is insulting.

http://tinyurl.com/498qm4n

125 curious

And that puts some doubt in everyone's mind. [Accidentally]

126 That f*ckin whore bitch:

Her husband waited a week to speak out!

Michelle Obama Urges ‘Tolerance’ in Open Letter to Parents About the Tucson Shooting


The mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona offers a teachable moment for American parents, says First Lady Michelle Obama.

In an open letter posted on the White House Web site, Mrs. Obama says the “lessons” include “the value of tolerance” and giving others “the benefit of the doubt, particularly those with whom they disagree.”

Mrs. Obama urges parents to tell their children about the six people killed in the Jan. 8 shooting. “And we can work together to honor their legacy by following their example – by embracing our fellow citizens; by standing up for what we believe is right; and by doing our part, however we can, to serve our communities and our country.”

127 Sorry....formatting fail....

128 EPA Handing Out Millions in Taxpayer Money to Study Combination of Pollution and ‘Social Stressors’ in Poor Neighborhoods

129 by embracing our fellow citizens; by standing up for what we believe is right; and by doing our part, however we can, to serve our communities and our country.”

Fuck that. That is nothing more than socialist blather.

130 I wouldn't call Pelosi a crafted liar.

She's not trying to convince her opponents, but her numbskulls.

Hypocrites! Blind guides strain at a gnat but swallow a camel.

Matthew 23:24

131

Change!

 

132 WTF is Moochelle talking about?  It wasn't a lack of "tolerance" that killed those people; it was an excess of it in dealing with that lunatic fuck.

133

“the value of tolerance” and giving others “the benefit of the doubt"

Wow, that's exactly what kept Loughner out of a hospital and/or jail.

Thanks.

134 That crazy fuck bit his own ear off. You gotta be really nuts to do that.

Posted by: Ed Anger at January 14, 2011 07:55 AM (7+pP9)

Plus having a unique jaw

135 "Tolerance" is leftard codespeak for bend over and take it with a smile.

136 Posted by: Tami at January 14, 2011 09:25 AM (VuLos)

I'm trying to get a handle on what constitutes a conspiracy theory.  so, this seems to fit all the earmarks of a good conspiracy theory, right?  yet, it's in the MSM....

so it's ok if those on the left promote a conspiracy theory but not those on the right.

137

I think Michelle means we all need to improve our grammar to prevent a similar act in the future.  And, of course, The Squirrels. 

138 MamaAJ

Yes. The message is an ethereal distraction that would induce more of the same tragedy by erasing the distinctions between right and wrong  -- distinctions are not to be tolerated by the tolerant (Left).

139 In an open letter posted on the White House Web site, Mrs. Obama says the “lessons” include “the value of tolerance” and giving others “the benefit of the doubt, particularly those with whom they disagree.”

'Those with whom they disagree' should never have been brought into equation in the first place, you fat, boob belt wearing, food nazi.

140 EPA rejects Arch Coal permit ......

Obama administration cracks down on mountaintop mining
........
NAME THAT PARTY:  

Rep. TierneyÂ’s wife gets 30-day sentence....
RI Gov. Chafee: Stop paying for vitriolic commentary
When talk radio hosts use harshly divisive language, "The advertisers should shut them down," Governor Lincoln Chafee said this morning.

......
City puts a stop to homeless outreach Couple must have proper permit to continue feeding dozens each day........
U.S. to test giving tax refunds on debit cards

141 Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 09:25 AM (penCf)

I'm a little confused.  What does tolerance have to do with the tuscon incident?

142 so it's ok if those on the left promote a conspiracy theory but not those on the right.

Posted by: curious at Jauary 14, 2011 09:36 AM (p302b)

Don't try to figure it out....the rules change every few minutes.

143 Wow! Format screw up.  Each link is a different story.  Sorry they all ran together.

144 Dear Michelle,

I'll tolerate nothing less than the electric chair for that sick f*ck.

Cordially,

Fritz

P.S. Unf*ck yourself

145 Don't screw with me.

146 But you can keep on humping me. I've got a feeling it's going to last at least 2 years more.

147 "Tolerance" is leftard codespeak for bend over and take it with a smile.
Posted by: maddogg

Same applies to Leftist "empowerment". In order for one person to gain power, they've taken it from someone else, as with "spreading the wealth" or "social justice". Now dhimmi, pay more taxes, be tolerant, bend over.

148  read the article about the debit cards last night.  A lot of people get their tax refund and immediately put it into their savings account as sort of a forced savings.  If they give out a debit card are they then forcing you to spend that money and not save it? 

149 I'm a little confused.  What does tolerance have to do with the tuscon incident?

It is quite simple. The Tuscon mass murders were caused by right wing intolerance, and invisible brain wave modulation via Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. So the TEApartiers must be tolerant of leftard movement of the country into socialisn and shut the fuck up. See?

150 Has anyone had any recent experience with a home loan situation?  Has anyone bought a new home from a builder or refinanced their existing home?  I know what the experiences of my friends have been and, for the most part, it's beenn difficult to refinance and almost impossible to get mortgages.  Wondering if it is like that everywhere.

Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 08:34 AM (p302b)

I bought my house last April and the mortgage process was extremely painful but ultimately successful.  Noticed that they were doing their DD unlike my previous 4 home loans.  I did do a refi in November and that was painless.

151 .the rules change every few minutes.
Posted by: Tami

Rules are for thee, but not for me.
For me, rules are made to be broken.

152 Now I thought that any crime was a reason to deport a legal resident. 

Va. high court says judges may not reopen immigrant casesThe high court's ruling came in an Alexandria case in which a Circuit Court judge revisited a 12-year-old case involving a permanent legal resident from Liberia. The defendant had pleaded guilty to embezzling $15,000, and was sentenced to one year in jail. Even immigrants with legal status, or "green cards," are subject to deportation for crimes involving sentences of a year or more, and when the man applied for citizenship years later, he was ordered deported.

153 The Other McCain has covered that too, Ed Anger.

Apparently they're not survivalist gold nuts that Loughner was following, as the MFM has been implying, but far leftists who want to destroy all of the world's paper currency with the wealthy voluntarily giving up their wealth so we can make the perfect moneyless socialist society... comrade.

154 Sarah Palin’s use of the charged term “blood libel” may not have been an accidental blunder, but a deliberate “‘dog whistle” appeal to her evangelical Christian supporters for whom the expression has meaning, commentators and others are saying.An interesting phrase - dog whistle. Either Epstein is alluding to the notion that those who support Palin are little more than dogs, or the phrase is so secret it can only be understood by those who speak her language. Either way, the notion is more than silly, it is insulting.

http://tinyurl.com/498qm4n

Posted by: Tami at January 14, 2011 09:25 AM (VuLos)

 

If they find out about our secret handshake, we're doomed! Just doomed!!!!

155 Ed Anger

Venus Project

"Welcome" to my parlor, said the spider to the fly...

The Venus Project is the latest authoritarian evolution embodied as a cure all for everyone's ills.

You can't please all the people all the time without eliminating all the displeased people.

156 sock off

157 "Pope John Paul II to be beatified May 1"

158 anyone listening to Beck.  He came on after my local morning show and he is talking about a cartoon characterizing FBI agents in a bad light or something?  Some group telling their members not to talk to the FBI?  What?

159 Paul Scruntman: (NYT)I just couldn't stomache anymore of this bile.  I stopped reading when he mention the violent rhetoric on the RIGHT!



A Tale of Two Moralities

One side of American politics considers the modern welfare state — a private-enterprise economy, but one in which society’s winners are taxed to pay for a social safety net — morally superior to the capitalism red in tooth and claw we had before the New Deal. It’s only right, this side believes, for the affluent to help the less fortunate.

The other side believes that people have a right to keep what they earn, and that taxing them to support others, no matter how needy, amounts to theft. ThatÂ’s what lies behind the modern rightÂ’s fondness for violent rhetoric: many activists on the right really do see taxes and regulation as tyrannical impositions on their liberty.

160 I suspect a dog like me might have some difficulty integrating meself into the hive that is the Venus Project. The Borg come to mind....

161 anyone listening to Beck.  He came on after my local morning show and he is talking about a cartoon characterizing FBI agents in a bad light or something?  Some group telling their members not to talk to the FBI?  What?

Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 10:00 AM (p302b)

CAIR

http://tinyurl.com/6an5tk3

162 Thoughtful Democrat political persuasion in history.

On May 22, 1856, the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone.  In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate's entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness.

163

Some group telling their members not to talk to the FBI?  What?

Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 10:00 AM (p302b)

Yep -- it's CAIR.

Here's a better picture of the poster.

164

I'm going to stick up for the college (though it pains me to do so) and say that, while the teachers and some students may have felt threatened and may have said so to their administration, the administration may not have wanted to get into the potential legal and monetary hassles associated with requesting an evaluation for involuntary commitment.  Say the evaluation turned up negative, and loser or his family decided to sue the school for "emotional distress" and all the other malarkey that gets pulled in lawsuits these days.  It's not very good publicity for a college to end up in the paper as, "the school where people with different points of view get treated like they're insane." 

Then there's always the possibility that the administrators just didn't think it was that big a deal.  They kicked the guy out of school, so he wasn't their problem anymore.  Loser Loughner hadn't physically injured anyone; he just exhibited menacing characteristics and weird thought processes.  Without meeting him -- and I doubt the administrators DID meet him -- they wouldn't have any reason to think he was anything other than a bad student with strange ideas and poor personal judgment, same as a lot of other students. 

The administrators also might not have realized that they were in a position to request such an evaluation.  I mean, would you assume that?  I don't know anything about NH's involuntary committment laws, except what everyone knows about such laws in general: if you're found to be a danger to yourself or to others, or if you are incapable of adequate self-care.  I don't think your average community college is going to be familiar with the ins and outs of involuntary committment and their potential role in initiating the process.  Maybe they are, but it seems like something far outside their normal level of involvement in a student's life.  More likely, they might address the student's parents, caregiver, or the student himself to suggest some kind of mental health examination.

And finally, sometimes administrators are just jerks, wimps, or both.  That wasn't necessarily the case here (I think my first three options are more likely), but it happens.  A lot of times a college administrator will side with the student rather than the professor, because they want that student's tuition to keep rolling in.  Usually this would happen more in a case of academic dishonesty (plagiarism, cheating) or student laziness ("The professor won't let me make up my final exam even though she KNOWS I was in Hawaii and couldn't get back in time for the final!"), but it could apply to anything.  In this particular case, since a female student also complained about Loser Loughner's behavior and said she felt threatened, the administration would have felt like they had to act and they expelled him.  Not necessarily because they felt he was genuinely a danger, but because student complaints, particularly about safety, tend to lead to bad publicity.  Again, I think this is the least likely of the options, but still a possibility.

So, there could be a lot of reasons why the school didn't do anything more than expel Loser Loughner.  Hindsight is 20/20 vision.  I'm not going to blame them outright for not going the extra mile and initiating a mental health evaluation.  It's a strange and unexpected option for dealing with weirdos in one's professional experience, outside of the social work and mental health care spheres.

*cough*

Wow. Sticking up for a higher education establishment that may or may not deserve it.  I feel like I have to take a shower now.

165 refinanced their existing home?  I know what the experiences of my friends have been and, for the most part, it's beenn difficult to refinance and almost impossible to get mortgages.  Wondering if it is like that everywhere.

Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 08:34 AM (p302b)

Just refinanced in MI, very easy and painless.  We arent in the 'I owe more than its worth' crowd for what its worth

166 O/T:   Someone over at HotAir was suggesting contacting the President of the U of A, but that's not the best approach.  The president is an academic and apparently a big part of the problem.  I did a little research and found a good person to contact at the University of Arizona if people want to express their "happiness" with the pep rally.

This is a list of the U of A Foundation Board of Trustees, which should represent some of the UniversityÂ’s biggest donors (and which is a group with governance authority).

The Chairman is Jon O. Underwood. I believe this is one of his businesses:
Desert Mountain Properties Lp
Street: 37700 N Desert Mountain Pky
Postal address: Scottsdale, AZ
Phone: (480) 488-0988

Mr. Underwood gave to the RNC in 2008.

Basically, the approach is to appeal to the Board of Trustees to fulfill their fiduciary and governance responsibilities. Never approach them in an angry way. Instead, youÂ’re appealing to them as realists who are supposed to make the academics/ivory tower types (like the President, apparently) to fulfill the mission of a state university.

If I were an Arizonan or an alumnus, IÂ’d contact Mr. Underwood or another member of the BoT.  

167 UK:
Police release new footage of student riots in bid to catch offenders

168 The left never gives up on the idea of Socialist Utopia. Never. It is just unacceptable to their micro minds that perfection cannot exist in a society of imperfect people who are poorly adapted to living like ants and doing what the queen tell them to do without question. They would need to give up free thought as well as their physical freedom, and the result would be a life not worth living. I would much rather be dead than live in their "Utopia" as it would resemble Hell much closer than Heaven.

169 Wow. Sticking up for a higher education establishment that may or may not deserve it.

Yeah, I think you're right to do so. 

This was a community college, as I recall.  That means they probably have an open access requirement in their mission statement. For them to actually take the step of kicking a resident of Arizona student off the campus is a effin' big deal.  I know that even to do that at a private college is a major thing and those kids have no "right" to attend that college. 

170

28  Not completely true: we had a similar situation on the campus I worked at.  The instructors wanted something done; the administration would do nothing -- "creating the wrong sort of climate".

171

171 and yeah, I think it has a lot to do with getting sued, so if the college kicked him out and requested a mental evaluation, then this kid was off the charts wacko

172 Have you guys been reading the comments in all of these 'The right is filled with hate' posts?

The tides may be a'changin'!

173

All religions have extremists.  Crusades!  Inquisition!  American foreign policy is to blame.  Racist!  Islamophobes!  Jihad is an interior spiritual struggle to be a better Muslim.  Tim McVeigh!  Abortion bomber!  Israel and the US are the two largest exporters of terror.  Yadda... yadda... yadda... 

That conspiracy to keep Muslims from revealing terror plots is not the conspiracy you are looking for.

*waves fingers* 

*MFM's collective eyes go blank.*

174 NY Times : My neighbor's house is on fire, but he wants to put it out.

175 174  Figured they just might

176 UH-OH:

Someone hasn't just been eating SALAD off the salad bar.

Jane D'Oh this pic is for you since you didn't get to see her in all her glory the other night

177 156 Sarah Palin’s use of the charged term “blood libel” may not have been an accidental blunder, but a deliberate “‘dog whistle” appeal to her evangelical Christian supporters for whom the expression has meaning, commentators and others are saying.An interesting phrase - dog whistle. Either Epstein is alluding to the notion that those who support Palin are little more than dogs, or the phrase is so secret it can only be understood by those who speak her language. Either way, the notion is more than silly, it is insulting.

http://tinyurl.com/498qm4n

Posted by: Tami at January 14, 2011 09:25 AM (VuLos)

They are SO behind the times.  The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has been operating for years! 

(Speaking of which, remember everyone!  If you haven't paid your VRWC dues through Goldline yet, if you do so by February 14th, you get a FREE copy of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue!   Make your checks payable to "Totally Not a Conspiracy.")

178 Posted by: Sock hole at January 14, 2011 10:13 AM (FIDMq)

Yeah, all the refinances I know are in the category of "holy crap my mortgage is higher than my house is worth now" group....

They are going to have to come up with some solution for these people cause they will ownthree million homes by next year if they don't, although maybe that is what they want..

179 Trump has been on Savage and Hannity.  Both times he said the same thing.  He would be very tough with the oil barrons.  He said anything over a hundred a barrel is disastrous for the economy and he believes we nearly had insolvency cause oil hit 150 a barrel.  Trumps makes enormous sense and he has a gold plated set.

He also was really annoyed at how the airports and cities in China and the middle east are all modern new and beautiful and our airports are old and dingy (don't forget he parks his jet at LaGuardia) and our cities need updating.  He wants everyone to pay us when we help them.

180

the crew on morning joe could barely contain heir joy over this prospect.  Made me a little concerned that maybe this isn't the best move, if the cast of morning joe is rooting for it, it can't be good for Republicans then.

Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 09:09 AM (p302b)

They aren't happy because Steele is good for Republicans.  They are happy because his replacement will probably be white and they can throw the race card for a news cycle.

181

178 UH-OH:

That website is TERRIFYING.

Have you ever read the comments??

They're the reason we're in this mess.

I repeat - give a basic civics test as a prerequisite to voting and we quickly turn it around.

182 178 UH-OH:

Someone hasn't just been eating SALAD off the salad bar.

Jane D'Oh this pic is for you since you didn't get to see her in all her glory the other night

Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 10:27 AM (penCf)

Oh, sweet Lord in heaven.  Oh, why?  I don't like bringing (more) criticism to the (justifiably criticized) memorial, but who told Moochelle that wearing parachute-pant style shorts was... well... a good idea?  Does the woman not own a mirror?

183 In an open letter posted on the White House Web site, Mrs. Obama says the “lessons” include “the value of tolerance” and giving others “the benefit of the doubt, particularly those with whom they disagree.”

The good news: Since we have to "tolerate" "18 = 6", that means I can claim my BMI is "awesomesauce" and she can stick her NO FATTIES campaign where her husband never goes.

184 @178
Yeah, she is a real fashion plate. 

She apparently does not own a mirror... I guess Barry has all of them in his bedroom. 

The outfits she picks are either out and out hideous or they're OK... but for a completely different body type.  I don't know who told her that a tall woman with big hips should wear dirndle skirts and little sweaters, but that's a hideous combination.  She should be wearing those longer jackets or coat-dresses or a properly fitted sheath dress (probably with a boat neck in her case to balance off her hips).   And, of course, she needs a paper sack for over her head.  _mrrrrow! 

You have to look at yourself in a mirror and realize your body changes, gal!  The other day I went shopping for a dressy winter sweater to wear to an evening event.  For some reason, I was gravitating to sweaters with those oversized faux fur collars.  Anyway, I found a cute one on a great sale and tried it on -- it looked awful.  Somehow I've inherited my grandmother's boobs later in life and I just looked too top heavy with the collar and boobage.   Wound up going in a completely different direction and getting a scooped neck sweater dress.  No matter how much you love a piece of clothing, you have to be realistic. 

185 Speaking of the Pep Rally...


A little video I made last night...

A little too soon? 

A little too late, if you ask me.  The "celebration" was a little sickening.  I'm just sad I didn't have more student videos to cull from.  Apparently the orgy lasted well into the next day.

186 George "mr. sorrow" has a 26 year old Girlfriend?  There are 53 years between them???

Anyway, Beck is claiming there will be an article up at the blaze about Francis Fox Piven saying "the tea party is all about sex".   I can't wait for this one, I guess they are exposing the geriatric set for what they are....a bunch of horny old folks who believe in economic responsibility.....

187 The outfits she picks are either out and out hideous or they're OK... but for a completely different body type.

She seems to have a problem with "appropriate" as well.  The thing she wore Wednesday was more appropriate for visiting school children to nag at them about vegetables.  Not as bad as the red cocktail dress to the posthumous MOH ceremony, but not appropriate, either.

At least she stopped wearing the fucking clown bows before they ended up on every shirt at the mall. *shudder*

188 Does the woman not own a mirror?
What good would that do her? She doesn't throw a reflection in mirrors.

189 Kudos to Anne Althouse for continuing to take the Left to task for this false "rhetoric problem."  She's also one of the few who actually analyzed the text of Obama's speech and pointed out the gaping holes in its logic. 

She's often wrong-headed, but it's nice when she uses her analytical legal mind on an issue and comes up on the right side of things. 

190
 So exactly why is being underwater on your mortgage so terrifying? If you're making payments okay, what the hell difference does it make? At some future point things will balance out, right?

 I guess by this logic you should never buy a new car--2 feet off the dealer's lot and you're underwater. But that doesn't seem to bug too many people. Go figure.

191 At least she stopped wearing the fucking clown bows before they ended up on every shirt at the mall. *shudder*

Posted by: HeatherRadish at January 14, 2011 10:44 AM (4ucxv)

Yeah, even I wouldn't have worn that outfit!

192 Has anyone had any recent experience with a home loan situation?  Has anyone bought a new home from a builder or refinanced their existing home?  I know what the experiences of my friends have been and, for the most part, it's beenn difficult to refinance and almost impossible to get mortgages.  Wondering if it is like that everywhere.

Posted by: curious at January 14, 2011 08:34 AM (p302b)

Can't speak to the home loan aspect of it (my recent refi was smooth and easy, but it was a VA loan through the same institution I had the old one with), but from a small business loan perspective...holy fuck.

The new SBA regulations that went into effect Oct 1, 2010 are more strenuous that they used to be.  For example, you can have gift money used toward the purchase/loan amount and a gift affidavit signed by the giftor is no longer sufficient - the SBA wants to have the checking account info from the giftor's account for the last two months.  The giftor can explicitly state that the funds are not to be repaid and the SBA will still want to ensure they aren't borrowed.  If the giftor moved some assets around, the SBA essentially wants to know which assets were moved around.  Of course, none of this is their business, but there you have it.

Even my current lender doesn't have requirements that onerous, but they're shackled by the SBA.

193 Canada has banned Dire Straits from the airwaves.

America's Crazy Left deeply envious.

194 They should re-record it and change "faggot" to "fucker."  I bet they'd play it then.

195 Paul Krugman discusses and issue he started by his lies and decides that he is not big enough to apologize and will just keep with the narrative.  Somehow and  somewhere there is "Political" violence.  And my god he is going to find it.

What a fucking douche bag.

http://tinyurl.com/48xy5c2

196 Paedophilia 'culturally accepted in south Afghanistan' British forces were advised by a military study that paedophilia is widespread and culturally accepted in southern Afghanistan.

197 So exactly why is being underwater on your mortgage so terrifying?

You can't move because no one will pay you enough to retire the note.

198 Did we ever find out who paid for the campaign T-shirts to be distributed to that "memorial service"[sic] the other night?

199 Will the IBM contestant on Jeopardy make remarks about banging Trebek's mother?

200 195 Canada has banned Dire Straits from the airwaves.

America's Crazy Left deeply envious.

Posted by: HeatherRadish at January 14, 2011 10:47 AM (4ucxv)

Friggin' CANADA. 

"The little faggot got his own jet airplane
The little faggot is a millionaire..."

Really?  THAT is what's got you banning it from the airwaves?  You must have fits whenever Jay-Z is on the radio.

201 What a fucking douche bag.

He's entering the Andi Sullivan zone of obsession.

202 192
 So exactly why is being underwater on your mortgage so terrifying? If you're making payments okay, what the hell difference does it make? At some future point things will balance out, right?

The problem is if you have to move, either because of a job loss or for some other reason.  If you tack on realtor fees, you are looking at a big outlay to get out from under your house.  In California, with double-digit unemployment, high taxes, and impossible commutes, it's not that easy to find a new job that pays enough to keep you in your house and is a reasonable commute. 

The other problem is just a matter of magnitude.  If your house depreciates 20% or 25% in a state where housing is cheap, it's not really a biggie.  The cash amount is not that huge.  But in California, 20% of a house's 2006 value is a big number. 

203 Kemp:

Great minds.  Yours is better a hell of a lot better at putting a good criticism together.  Can you believe he pulled out the 'morality' card?!  Death panels, abortions, refusing water to CA farmers to grow their crops, limiting personal fishing (starving families), etc:
........

Paul Scruntman: (NYT)I just couldn't stomach anymore of this bile.  I stopped reading when he mention the violent rhetoric on the RIGHT!



A Tale of Two Moralities

One side of American politics considers the modern welfare state — a private-enterprise economy, but one in which society’s winners are taxed to pay for a social safety net — morally superior to the capitalism red in tooth and claw we had before the New Deal. It’s only right, this side believes, for the affluent to help the less fortunate.

The other side believes that people have a right to keep what they earn, and that taxing them to support others, no matter how needy, amounts to theft. ThatÂ’s what lies behind the modern rightÂ’s fondness for violent rhetoric: many activists on the right really do see taxes and regulation as tyrannical impositions on their liberty.

Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 10:03 AM (penCf)

204 "We can explain to [our children] that although we might not always agree with those who represent us, anyone who enters public life does so because they love their country and want to serve it...except my husband, who hated this country so much, he sought the presidency, so that he could first apologize to the world for it, then set about fundamentally changing it, thereby, for the first time in my life, making me proud of my country."

205 The other problem is just a matter of magnitude. If your house depreciates 20% or 25% in a state where housing is cheap, it's not really a biggie. The cash amount is not that huge. But in California, 20% of a house's 2006 value is a big number. Posted by: Y-not at January 14, 2011 10:56 AM (pW2o Having constipation troubles? Browse a California real estate magazine. Problem solved.

206 Did we ever find out who paid for the campaign T-shirts to be distributed to that "memorial service"[sic] the other night?

Posted by: HeatherRadish at January 14, 2011 10:55 AM (4ucxv)

I got a good guess.

http://tinyurl.com/4waratg

207 Nothing should be more reassuring to our children than the sound of thousands of people celebrating hope.

Arizona Daily Wildcat.

208 I got a good guess. http://tinyurl.com/4waratg Posted by: Tami at January 14, 2011 10:59 AM (VuLos) I like the Ebola countdown.

209 I was checking out at a store the other day and the cashier noted my California driver's license (yeah, yeah, I need to change it).  Anyway, I mentioned that we got out of CA by the skin of our teeth. 

The woman next to me said "Oh, come on, it's not that bad!"  I bit my tongue, but all I could think was "Yeah, well maybe you're independently wealthy and don't have to work, but for regular people it's a disaster.  Enjoy life in your comfy bubble, but you'd better pray the peons don't come banging on the gates of your gated community some day." 

I've been trying to fight it off, but I really resent people who are so deaf to what is happening in so many parts of this country.  We can say California "deserves" it - and I guess Las Vegas and Phoenix and other cities that had housing and jobs booms a few years ago followed by economic collapse do, too.  But people forget there are individuals caught in these messes and I know from experience that a lot of them don't deserve the situations they found themselves in. 

210 So exactly why is being underwater on your mortgage so terrifying?


You also can't afford your house payment that only 3 years ago you could afford. Our property taxes have doubled, our house insurance (no claims) have doubled, etc.  Plus, there are no 'side' jobs any more.  My city has gotten around the 'house isn't worth as much, so taxes should drop' meme by basing prop. taxes on the value of the mortgage, not the house's actual worth.

Three years ago we were making extra payments, now we are barely making our monthly payments.  We can't even refi because there are so many foreclosed homes around us.  (The bank won't even work with us and actually told us, well you should have saved the money in a bank instead of paying down our mort.!)

The house right next door sold for $150,000 three years ago, with just the 2 lots worth $50,000/each.  It just sold for $32,000.

211 Hang in there, momma! 

212 This is Tami's great find, but I thought it deserved to be in bold:

Theme of “Together We Thrive” T-shirt came from Obama’s Organizing for America

In the controversy of the pep rally/rock concert style Memorial for those who lost their lives in Saturday’s Arizona tragedy, the mainstream media reported that the “Together We Thrive: Tucson & America” T-shirt given to mourners as they entered McKate Center was the idea of University of Arizona brass, not the Obama administration.

Yet the “Together We Thrive” slogan dates back to a post to Obama’s own Organizing for America in a Feb. 11, 2008 post by self-described “globalist” John Berry IV.

More than passing strange that the Obama campaign message of civility was the same on Feb. 11, 2008 as it was in his Wednesday Memorial speech, and the same one, too carried by the mainstream media in coverage of the Memorial.


“For too long Americans have been set one against the other.  It is a side affect of a free market society,” Berry IV posted.  “How can profits be maximized, how can I get the work down for the lowest possible costs.  This continually sets one group against the other, especially in the blue collar sectors of America.  It has become part of the American Business model, whether it was indentured servants, slaves picking cotton, sharecroppers, the industrious people that built the railroads or todayÂ’s migrant workers.  As long as we remain divided, fighting for the scraps that America has to offer it will be one group against the other.

“What I see in Obama is a chance for revolution. (Italics CFPÂ’s).  A chance for every group to be heard; A chance to live the American dream that has been denied to so manyÂ…

“In a previous career, I was the global leader of Diversity for a global fortune 500 corporation.  I have studied the affects of diverse groups working together and the results can not be denied.  Together we Thrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

....

If you were a mourner who took home a “Together We Thrive” T-shirt have a look at the bottom of your shirt.  “Rocking America and Rocking the Vote” is a common theme of the DNC,  and itÂ’s right there on your Memorial T-shirt memento.

213 Here's the other weird dynamic that I noticed. 

I was at my hairdresser's the other day.  She's a lovely very young gal who has just gotten married.  Mormon, so I'd say maybe she's 22 at most (probably more like 20).  Her husband is going to school for some kind of nursing degree (just graduated last year) and is working part time. 

They just got married and are living in a huge house in one of the loveliest parts of Provo.  She said the house was worth $560K a couple of years ago and is now worth about $300K.  They have all the modern conveniences in this huge house that they're renting with no kids (yet). 

When I first got married, I lived in a shabby, tiny furnished apartment for the first couple of years.  I think we'd been married about 10 years before we had a home with air conditioning. 

So this new generation is starting out in a time when there's this glut of expensive homes.  Their expectations for starting out is to have all the conveniences, even when they are just starting their careers and not making much money.  It's this artificial world they're living in. 

I just wonder what they'll be like when they get older. 

214 "The other side believes that people have a right to keep what they earn, and that taxing them to support others, no matter how needy, amounts to theft." Thank you, Krugman, you midget dickfuck! How does "neediness" make theft not theft? Now, I know that he knows that he is wrong.

215 Canada has banned Dire Straits from the airwaves.

I swear I've heard a sanitized version twice on the locally owned station here.  They skip right over it like they do in the "radio-friendly" version of "Killing In The Name Of" by Rage Against The Machine.

216

Great article by Caroline Glick at Big Peace (originally posted in the Jerusalem Post) about southern Sudan's ongoing vote to secede from the north. 

The Sudanese at a Crossroads and the Arab League

This is the line that really jumped out at me:

"THE FACT of the matter is that the Arabs have reason to be concerned about what is happening in Sudan. If South Sudan becomes an independent nation, it will be the first case of rollback of Arab imperialism since World War I."

Does the news even TALK about Sudan?  I've avoided watching the news, especially this past week with the never-ending "Rightwingers are murderers, look what they did in Tucson" meme, so I honestly have no idea.  My educated guess?  No, they do not.

217 We did a refinance last month, for less than half of the appraised value, at 3.75% 30 year payout. Painless; we used the same mortgage broker as last year. I am very lucky in that while central VA real estate value has dropped in the past 2 years, we are not trying to sell the house. The new car analogy mentioned in an earlier post is apt.

218 So exactly why is being underwater on your mortgage so terrifying?

It depends on a lot of factors. If you are in a State like CA it is very bad. People are losing their jobs their right and left and to find new jobs you have to move out of the State. But even there it still depends on circumstances. If you got one of those CRA no money down loans and have very little equity in the house you can just walk away and the bank has to eat it.

If you have equity there is a remote possibility that your new employer would be willing to pay on the house to allow you to relocate. That used to be common a few years ago, but that was in a totally different environment for businesses.

If you can't get either of those you can still walk away. Its just that you take a bath. But sometimes you are better off taking a bath.

But the truth is, overall in the country, especially flyover country, most people are not underwater.

219 JFSJ delivers 10,000 signatures to Fox News to fire Glenn Beck

220 "In a previous career, I was the global leader of Diversity for a global fortune 500 corporation. I have studied the affects of diverse groups working together and the results can not be denied. Together we Thrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” John Berry IV said that? "Affects of diverse groups. . . " would work if he had been talking about some bullshit mythical group emotion, but since his fucking retarded sentence structure appears to be discussing influences on results, he is USAGE FAIL. Fucking "global leader of diversity." Fucking E-ffirmative action token is more like it.

221 When I first got married, I lived in a shabby, tiny furnished apartment for the first couple of years.  I think we'd been married about 10 years before we had a home with air conditioning. 

So this new generation is starting out in a time when there's this glut of expensive homes.  Their expectations for starting out is to have all the conveniences, even when they are just starting their careers and not making much money.  It's this artificial world they're living in.



We actually took a lot of flack when we bought our home because it needed a lot of work, had no 'extras' like a porch, deck, big kitchen, 2 bathroom sinks, etc.

I'm glad we didn't listen to those idiots, because all of them are living in apartments now.

222 209 Nothing should be more reassuring to our children than the sound of thousands of people celebrating hope.

Arizona Daily Wildcat.

Posted by: HeatherRadish at January 14, 2011 11:00 AM (4ucxv)

*noisy vomiting*

That is the most disgusting thing I've read in a while, and that is SAYING SOMETHING.

In the hours that followed the memorial service, called "Together We Thrive: Tucson and America," media outlets and audience members took the opportunity to criticize the UA community for its behavior...

That right there is your f-ing problem, you ass.  A memorial service does not have a NAME and does not have a THEME.  A memorial service does not include complimentary t-shirts and the opportunity to buy nachos from a stadium vendor.  You don't "celebrate hope" at a memorial service.  You're there to memorialize the dead, not rally around your deified partisan leaders. 

I hate these people.

223 I have been starting to look at houses here in Utah - just online - and have noticed a lot that talk about getting into them with very little down.  I think it's some sort of government program, but I can't recall what.

It just seems odd to me that they would sell houses to people with very little down after what's been happening.

But it almost sounds like my husband and I would have been better off having less equity in our house.  We never went underwater on our main mortgage (and had a buyout on the other), but the house depreciated 20% and we are going to face some heavy taxes this year, I think. 

I was raised to believe that you meet your obligations/debts, but I suppose walking away is a smarter option.  I just couldn't bring myself to even explore that option.  I have a pathological need to pay my bills. 

224

http://tinyurl.com/4hx4nsk

Western PA man arrested for jihadist plans. Link goes to theblaze.com

225 Thank you, Krugman, you midget dickfuck!
How does "neediness" make theft not theft?

Thought experiment: Someone with no job and no health insurance with some chronic condition steals Krug's wallet. Does he press charges? Or tell the police to let the guy go, then hand him an extra hundred?

226 It just seems odd to me that they would sell houses to people with very little down after what's been happening.

They have not repealed CRA. Not only that but thanks to it being a totally Dem congress CRA was not even brought up and has been continuously used to hammer banks who don't adhere to it even now.

Perhaps that will change now but I wouldn't hold out too much hope.

227 Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 11:22 AM

I feel like a sucker for living within my means all those years only to get bitten on the ass when we finally thought we were financially secure enough to move to California. 

But that's life. You can't know how things will turn out.  We've enjoyed our life, lived in a lot of interesting places, and had satisfying careers.  Sure, we'll be lucky to have enough to ever retire - and will undoubtedly wind up with some punk-ass kids pushing a pillow over our faces - but that's life. 

228
Thought experiment: Someone with no job and no health insurance with some chronic condition steals Krug's wallet. Does he press charges? Or tell the police to let the guy go, then hand him an extra hundred?

Posted by: HeatherRadish at January 14, 2011 11:25 AM (4ucxv)

He labels the thief a Republican, calls Holder and they bring the guy up on hate-crime charges

229 So this new generation is starting out in a time when there's this glut of expensive homes.  Their expectations for starting out is to have all the conveniences, even when they are just starting their careers and not making much money.  It's this artificial world they're living in. 

I just wonder what they'll be like when they get older. 

Posted by: Y-not at January 14, 2011 11:12 AM (pW2o

I don't think they'll get much older without having experienced a major wake-up call. 

I'm reminded of a situation in late 07 or 08 before I retired.  A couple of E-4s that had only been married a year managed to get approved for a $250k mortgage shortly after they arrived at their new duty station in CA.  When my platoon sergeant told me about it, I brought them into the office and tried to clue them in.

I told them about the housing market was fucked and was only going to get worse.  That CA only amplifies that reality.  That they had only been married a short time (this young couple liked to swing).  And that after just buying a brand new SUV and set of tits for her, this probably wasn't a wise move.

They looked at me like I was a fucking idiot.

Several months later, after I retired, they divorced and he was saddled with a mortgage he couln't afford, she ran off with her new tits and the dude she was swinging with, and he had like 4 other E-4s living in the house with him to try and make payments.  I never heard from them, but I'm betting that that crazy old Top they thought was just some crusty old dumbass looks pretty fucking prescient now. 

230 221 JFSJ delivers 10,000 signatures to Fox News to fire Glenn Beck

Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 11:19 AM (penCf)

UPDATE (unsaid): "Fox News accepts signatures with a smile and thanks JFSJ for the toilet paper delivery"

231 I have studied the affects of diverse groups working together and the results can not be denied. Together we Thrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

There is truth to this statement just not the truth he's thinking of.

Diversity in skills, talents etc are helpful to a group working toward a goal. Their skin color accents and religious beliefs don't mean squat and can be harmful if any of those groups think they do.

232

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly declined in January as more Americans worried about the effects of higher gasoline prices on their finances.

Consumers anticipated stagnant incomes this year along with rising inflation, a product of the highest gasoline prices at the pump since October 2008. Buying plans declined, indicating faster job growth may be required to keep consumer spending accelerating in coming months.

“Rising gasoline prices are definitely hurting people’s wallets,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

 

The MFM has been telling us that the economy and job market was unexpectedly getting better all of December, which unexpected followed November. Now consumer confidence unexpectedly decline. How can this unexpectedly be? It must be a result of the hate speech on the right. Which is always expected

233
I feel like a sucker for living within my means all those years only to get bitten on the ass when we finally thought we were financially secure enough to move to California.


No shit.  We have been told to stop paying our bills and then they can help us.  We have been told to sign up for food stamps, etc., and then the bank will help.  It is weird.  We were responsible enough to pay down our mort. and bills when we could.  We consolidated to have bigger payments but shorter loan lengths, we did everything the responsible way (all the while never going on real vacations, buying a new tv, going out to eat, etc.).  Now, when all we want to do is refi, no one will help us because we have been too responsible.  Damn, it really pisses me off!

234 Breaking:  Not One To Be Outdone, Today President Barack Obama Was Beatified  By The Mainstream Media-  Putting Him On The Fast Track To Sainthood- For His Landmark Heathcare Legislation and For Acknowledging The Value Of Tolerance.

235 Tickets for the 2011 Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival go on sale at noon on Jan. 21.

236

OT: Enjoy golf, but tired of visiting the same courses all the time?

Then try your hand at the North Korean Open in Pyongyang! 

I wonder if Bammy will be tempted to go.  He could probably write it off as a job expense, right?

237 @235
I really feel for you momma.  Any good prospects on the horizon?  Is the economy where you are turning around at all? 

I was considering selling my hair... or a kidney. 

Actually, I am going to have my mother's silver appraised.  I would like to know what it's worth, just in case we get in desperate straights.  God forgive me, but that's the new reality. 


I think we are ok now short-term, but I honestly have no idea how we will ever retire.  Fortunately, my husband's career is the type that could - in theory - be supplemented with consulting work.  But my earnings capacity out here in Utah is not looking too great as salaries are ridiculously low.  I'd have to jump back onto the faculty track and that would create a whole separate set of problems. 

238 and For Acknowledging The Value Of Tolerance.

Wake me up when tolerance extends to "conservatives", or even "people who would rather eat a cheeseburger than an arugula salad and half a cup of lentils."

239
I'm in the top thread talking to myself.

Not that I mind.

Just saying.

240 241
I'm in the top thread talking to myself.


Come down from that ledge thread!!!

241 Posted by: microsoothsayer at January 14, 2011 11:42 AM (uFokq)

Sorry, but I have no sympathy. You have the best hash I have seen, so quit bitching, ufokq!

242
  Thanks to the various posters for the knowledge about being underwater. I guess I approached it from a sort of uncommon viewpoint. We recently bought a home, after making sure we met the qualifications usually promoted.  I suspect a lot of others didn't really research the situation before committing, hence the anxiety. In our case, buying was formulated on living there for an extended time. I'm old enough to approach ownership from that view, thanks to my parents.

 It'd surely take a cataclysmic event to make us say "we quit"--so we tried to take such into account prior to committing. With luck, etc. we'll be here, and the kids (reason we moved in the first place) will have the burden of sorting it all out.

243 I suspect a lot of others didn't really research the situation before committing, hence the anxiety. In our case, buying was formulated on living there for an extended time. I'm old enough to approach ownership from that view, thanks to my parents.

We thought we'd be in California for a long time, too.  But we had to move. 

Jobs, or the lack thereof, are driving all of this. 

244
dude, really, your new name is killing Charles Shultz

245 Peggy Noonan is back in the full Mandingo swoon mode.  Somebody get her a new pair of granny-panties because the current ones are completely soaked.

246 Posted by: Burn the Witch at January 14, 2011 11:27 AM (fLHQe)

Good Lord. When I was in CA in the 70s I was an E-6 over 6 drawing P3-150. I couldn't afford to buy a house then before the explosion. I can not imagine an E-4 trying to buy a house in 2007.

I rented. When I got out I am very glad I elected to leave CA in 1977.

247 You never saw my secret Peanuts strips, where Lucy and Charlie have a threesome with Peppermint Patty.

248 232 221 JFSJ delivers 10,000 signatures to Fox News to fire Glenn Beck

Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 11:19 AM (penCf)

How fucking stupid. Beck attracted 15 times that number to make a trip to DC and stand around in the heat. What a bunch of fucking idiots. What's a JFSJ anyway--another fake name for some people Soros is paying?

249 250 I googled it. I guess these are the descendants of the jews that Soros didn't collude with nazis to have killed? Way to go jews, know that history!

250

Politico story: Some guy who took a bullet in leg last sat is blaming beck, rush and palin. I will not link.

Wanted 15 min of fame, douchebag

251

Jubilation has broken out in the Midwest—or at least in Wisconsin and Indiana, now that Democrats in neighboring Illinois have rushed their tax increase into law.

Late Tuesday night, Democrats in the Illinois house and senate rammed through Governor Pat Quinn's 67% hike in the state income tax and a nearly 50% jump in the state corporate tax. The increase will add $1,400 to the average family's tax bill

"It's like living next door to `The Simpsons' -- you know, the dysfunctional family down the block,' Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said....

Springfield, Springfield!
It's a hell of a town!

252 I really feel for you momma.  Any good prospects on the horizon?  Is the economy where you are turning around at all? 


Thanks.  I'm really not meaning to sound like I'm complaining.  I am actually a very positive person.  I just hate that being responsible has actually been frowned upon by the banks, etc, but if we would just be irresponsible like we have been advised to do by the banks, etc., we'd have it made.

The problem here is that even the rich aren't spending money.  My husband has 2 second-jobs.  Both in the construction/home-improvement/big machinery (back hoe, bulldozer, etc) area.  Even with all this snow, the upper crust pays to have their drives shoveled, their parking lots cleaned, etc.  They didn't this year.

It is really weird.

We will make it, we always do.  But, damn, I'm really sick of eating our Lucky Charms cereal we've bought on sale all year.  I'm either going to turn into a big marshmallow or a little leprechaun

Every one around here is in the same boat.  Most of us buy a surplus of an item when its on sale (if we use it regularly) so our pantries are always full.  You can't go anywhere around here now without hearing how people are so thankful they stocked up on 'staples' when they could because they are going through it now.

253 Posted by: Tami at January 14, 2011 07:31 AM (VuLos)

Its a politic way of saying Laughner was nuts. But said this way, Laughner appears rational rather than the bumfucking psycho that he is.

254 Lord, this would be so sweet.

255 Worst Governor in America doubles down on stupid:

Lincoln Chafee demands advertising boycott of all "rightwing" talk radio

I guess he knows who ended his Senate career.

256 I'm confused; what does "Blood Libel" mean?  Can ya help me out here, anyone?

257 I'm confused; what does "Blood Libel" mean?  Can ya help me out here, anyone?

Posted by: Ezra Klein at January 14, 2011 01:00 PM (GwPRU)

Get with the program, it means whatever we say it means.

258 "HereÂ’s An Example Of An Email The Money Manager Arrested For Threatening To Kill 47 Regulatory Officials Sent"

259 Posted by: momma at January 14, 2011 11:32 AM (penCf)

There are a lot of people in your position, never miss a payment, do the right thing and then are told they are effectively being discriminated against because they did the right thing.  One of may parents friends has advised all their friends not to do this as this will make your credit rating a mess and potentially make it impossible for you to get a mortgage or credit in the future.  Already one of my parents friends went to one of these places that consolidates your credit.  They had no idea that the "consolidation" would impact their ability to get credit in the future.  They thought they were just making things easier by having only one payment.

260 One of may parents friends has advised all their friends not to do this as this will make your credit rating a mess and potentially make it impossible for you to get a mortgage or credit in the future.  Already one of my parents friends went to one of these places that consolidates your credit.


We never went there thank the Lord.  We actually put all our little bills into one big bill, with a low interest rate in exchange for agreeing to pay it off in 4 years.  (I was really sick for several years, had brain surgery to 'fix' it (don't ask, really boring story), and so we had a lot of credit card debt) None of our debt was written off, we just wanted to pay them off quicker.  It is through our credit union and is a good idea, until the economy tanked

261 Nice line in the "1/4 of all Americans..." article. Urban schools are "failure factories" controlled by the unions.

262 I don't really understand the problem with the 1/4 stat. The point of having a test is to weed people out, after all, and it's only weeding out 1/4, right?