This pretty much sums it up

From reader Daniel (add a few zeroes to bring it to Greenwich, but you’ll get the point):

Garrison Kielor comes to Danbury

I won’t be attending. For years I listened to the show and enjoyed it, but a couple of years ago, just before Christmas, he went off on a long parable about King Herod  killing children and implying that Harod’s actions were indistinguishable from those of U.S. Marines then serving in Iraq. It was just so despicable that I shut him off, and haven’t listened since.

Harvard goes PC with its portfolio

Drops investments in Israel, goes with Muslim Turkey. It’s Harvard’s money, and I personally could care less what those feckless F..ks in Cambridge do, but if I were an alumnus who was (a) Jewish or (b) concerned about the soundness of my old college’s finances or (c) both, I’d be worried. Turkey?

CORRECTION: Harvard denies that’s what happened.

Japan’s missing old people

See ya, Granny!

Japan discovers that many of its older citizens haven’t been expanding their carbon footprint for decades.

Craig’s list murderer – Medical student commits suicide in cell

You wonder why more types like this couldn’t do the same and save the taxpayers’ money. On the other hand, the fellow arrested for the murder of four people in Buffalo Saturday was released today - wrong man. Which is why we have trials.

Focus on Scarsdale in the WSJ

A profile of our neighbor across the border. My father was born there in 1905 in a house on five acres on Heathcote Road, designed and built by his father. I’m told they kept a cow, to keep the five children in milk, and my grandmother was the first female to be president of the School Board (“Fountain House”, the new wing at the Scarsdale Middle School, is named in her honor). My Uncle Gary was the last Fountain to live there but forty – some years ago he declared, “fifty years in Scarsdale is enough for any man” and pulled up roots for New Hampshire.

Sugar beets again

I mentioned this decision Friday, but the WSJ has picked up the story and I guess will be running with it tomorrow. One federal judge is planning on shutting down half our country’s sugar production. That’s a lot of power for one guy to exercise.

Just in case all your kids get in trouble at once

Recipe for 25 lb Rikers’s Island carrot cake. Ya wanna be prepared for emergencies.

Shocker: anti-foreclosure bill will benefit banks, not home “owners”

Why are we doing this at all?

Banks will get the biggest benefit from an Obama administration housing program designed to help unemployed homeowners escape foreclosure.Banks will get the biggest benefit from an Obama administration housing program designed to help unemployed homeowners escape foreclosure.

Housing experts expressed concern that banks, not homeowners, will be helped by the White House’s $3 billion funding infusion — $2 billion from the Treasury Department and another $1 billion from the Housing and Urban Development Department — going to those states hit hardest by the housing market crash and unemployment.

The basic principle is to help struggling homeowners but with so many people underwater on their mortgages the new funding is unlikely to do much good, Baker said.The basic principle is to help struggling homeowners but with so many people underwater on their mortgages the new funding is unlikely to do much good, Baker said.

“You need to make sure that someone benefits from the program other than banks,” he said.

Baker suggested that if the government is going to provide up to $50,000 in loans over the course of two years to those struggling homeowners that the money should be used for any of their needs, not just to pay the mortgage.

He said banks could offer a program that would allow homeowners to rent their home back from the bank at a lower monthly rate than their mortgage payment for up to five years, providing some security for those struggling to make monthly payments.

The arrangement would provide lenders with a real incentive to negotiate with homeowners because they don’t want to be landlords.

If the recently announced program is expected to work there has to be a reasonable expectation that at the end of the two-year program homeowners will have some equity in their property.

“If that’s not the case, then it’s not worth it,” he said.

He said he’d be “very surprised” if the vast majority of those who take advantage of the program don’t eventually lose their homes.

Got milk?

Food Stamps program cut again to accommodate Michelle Obama’s pet project.

Democrats who reluctantly slashed a food stamp program to fund a state aid bill may have to do so again to pay for a top priority of first lady Michelle Obama.

The House will soon consider an $8 billion child nutrition bill that’s at the center of the first lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative. Before leaving for the summer recess, the Senate passed a smaller version of the legislation that is paid for by trimming the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

Someone may know what’s going on down there, but I sure don’t.

I don’t think everyone’s on message here

It’s Ramadan, time for peace, love and understanding, no?

BAGHDAD — Roadside bombs, booby-trapped cars and hit-and-run attacks reverberated across Iraq on Sunday, another violent day following insurgents’ threats to escalate their attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Lobsters are everywhere, it seems, except Long Island Sound

The guv’mint wants to shut down the commercial lobster fishery in LIS, (a ridiculous proposition, as there are no lobsters left anyway) while in Maine and Canada, they have more than they can sell. I just bought some at Shop-Rite for $5.99 a pound and now hear from Pal Nancy that Stew Leonard’s got them for $3.99. Poor old lobstermen – can’t make money at these prices. But lucky us.

Update: you don’t necessarily want to eat these bugs boiled or steamed right now, because they’re almost certain (especially at these prices) to be soft-shelled – winter time’s the right season for hard shells. But lobster rolls, Quiche, pie, go for it.

UPDATE II: quickie history on lobstering here, but there are some great books on the subject, if you’re interested.

Dry Hole?

I have now heard of three mid-country homes (two on Riversville, on off of Cat Rock) whose wells have gone dry. The Riversville Road folks blame the mega mansion that went up between them, but I’m not sure of the source of the Cat Rock property’s woes. Pal Nancy and I were municipal water kids, so when we bought our first house, up in Maine, never thought about the hand-dug well in front until the former owner stopped by to kindly inform us that it ran dry each summer. $3,000 later (and those were 1981 dollars) I knew more about water tables and wells than I ever thought I’d care to.

So you land a nice, big job with Apple and you have to steal?

Manager at Apple arrested and sued for taking kick-backs from suppliers. He seems to have started almost as soon as he landed the job in 2005 (which suggests to me that he was probably doing the same thing at his previous employer). I understand crimes of passion, and even desperation, but this sort of greedy, stupid stuff baffles me.

A fair look at the “automatic citizenship” provision of the 14th Amendment from NPR

Does a good job of presenting both sides of the issue. This country passed the Amendment after the simply awful Supreme Court Dred Scott decision denying blacks citizenship back in the 1850s (?). Most countries do not confer automatic citizenship on children born on their soil (although Ireland used to), but there may be ways to revoke this part of the Amendment without losing all the other protections (like due process of law) that it grants. Then again, maybe we don’t want to go this way – I retain an open mind on the subject, but it’s one I’m interested in.

Bubbles can even bring failed 1958 housing developments back to life!

Gotta love bubbles, and have faith.

Pagans and the Tea Party

Hey – it’s a big tent! I have no idea, exactly, what a “liberal pagan” believes in, but sure, come on in.

The Tea Party is a decentralized grassroots movement, much like the modern Pagan movement, so getting a good feel of its size and opinions can be difficult. I found the most useful information on what the Tea Party is actually about, apart from rhetoric and propaganda, is a poll conducted by the New York Times/CBS News and the Contract from America.

It seems that the Tea Party is mostly made up of married, white, male Republicans over 45 years old. Tim suggests that liberals tend to dislike this demographic. I can only speak from my own experience but I can safely say that I have generally always found this grouping of Americans likable. Growing up in small Southern towns around construction and auto repair shops, this demographic formed the majority of my daily social and business interactions. So although I don’t always agree with them politically, I do find this section of the American populace fairly amiable.

According to the poll, Tea Party members tend to think the taxes they already pay are fair, don’t think Palin is presidential material, support Social Security and Medicare, are pessimistic about the economy, are unhappy with government spending, believe the ineffectiveness of Congress is a significant contributing factor to the current state of the economy, and feel their voices are not heard in Washington, D.C. They are critical of President Obama’s performance so far.

The foreclosure mess

Interesting article in the NYT’s Business Section this morning on a Congressman’s attempt to sever “servicing banks” from their home equity loan businesses. The problem is, according to the Congressman, that Chase, Wells Fargo, etc., don’t own the first mortgages – they just “service” them for pension funds etc., but do own the seconds, and resist fiercely any attempt to write those down. So the various attempts to deal with foreclosure situations goes nowhere.

I think the Congressman is onto something here, but I’m not sure there’s a Constitutional way to solve it (the Congressman mentions condemnation of the loans via “eminent domain”, which sounds ominous), and nothing will happen of any importance in Washington until after the elections, if then. And, there are other problems: I’m working on a deal now where, ironically, the local bank that holds the second is being cooperative, but the holder of the first picked it up from the FDIC after Washington Mutual failed, has no idea of the provenance of its loan and the lawyers don’t want it sold, even at 100 cents on the dollar.

And so on – I think we’re in for a long, long haul here before this sorts itself out.