Iceland to Europe: go to hell

Revolutionary

I asked about this a month or so ago, and got some intelligent answers from knowledgeable readers. But here’s the take from BusinessInsider.com. As readers suggested, there were no repercussions. Lenders take warning.

Here’s a tragedy

“Woman” falls to her death at Yosemite. The girl was 26, the same age as my adventurous, rock-climbing Kat. I guess 26 makes her a woman for press purposes, but someone  just lost their little girl, and I am so sorry.

Central Falls, RI goes bankrupt

As expected. I feel for its retired employees, who are about to get the shaft. I’ll admit that I don’t understand Rhode Island or its finances. It’s always been run by crooks, or so I hear, but it has a decent main city and beautiful land, including some very expensive sea coast, so what’s so hard about keeping it going? I myself won’t go there after Jenny died – too sad – but it should be able to make do without my patronage.

UPDATE: If my own sister, a native of Rhode Island, didn’t get the “Jenny” reference, I guess it’s too obscure. Think “Love Story” (but try not to puke).

I however, just rip off taxpayers

Biden: Tea Party Hobbits are terrorists. Then he stuffed his Treasury Department rent check in his pocket and went home to his secure house in Maryland.

Bummer – CR hates the 2012 Honda Civic

They hate it! My Sarah loves hers, a 2004 (?) model. I wonder whether this is a failure by Honda or the wave of the future of new cars?

Don’t tell Walt

But looking south, all hell’s gonna bust loose in the next hour or so.

On Line dating

Interesting article here on Match.com. I tried it a decade ago, for one day, after reading a Wall Street Journal article on the site, met a wonderful woman and established a great relationship for several years until she, understandably, chose to seek someone who had better financial prospects. I prefer to think she made a mistake – I actually turned out to have some pretty profitable years, despite my wanting to be a writer – but we parted as friends and remain so today.

Regardless, not a bad way to meet people. And, not surprising to me, conservatives turn out to have no objection to liberals, while liberals are much more intolerant. I think the Birkenstock crowd is losing out on some amusing, intelligent people, but of course, that’s their choice.

Dang! great photo, no way to post it

My office computer uploads pictures to WordPress so there’s something wrong with this mini here at home. I’ve reset it a couple of times and that exhausts my computer knowledge. In any event, we’ve got some great cumulus clouds building up in the south, promising interesting things.

Of course they sold you out, you dolts. So did the Republicans,

A wailing and gnashing of teeth among the die-hard Demmerkrats. You just don’t get it: you blame the tea party when in fact the problem lies with the power that you’ve given Washington to “solve” the nation’s problems. You concentrate that power (and guess where the only upbeat real estate market is?) and you lose all control over your country and your life.

The tea party and other libertarians are fighting a losing battle against this. You resist, claim that we’re fascists, racists whatever, and then are shocked when your elected representatives sell out to Wall Street and all the other big players. What don’t you get here?

I realize that these weather reports drive Walt crazy, but that’s mainly why I post them

1:10 PM. Thunder growling in the west, down Long Island Sound. It’s all coming this way, quickly.

The killing of Osama

Absolutely riveting article by Nicholas Schmidle of The New Yorker. Somehow, he got access to  all the players, including the SEAL Team Six men, and it’s a fascinating tale. Free on line, too!

UPDATE: If you read the article, and I think you should, check out the detail of the SEAL who wrapped the two bin Laden wives in a bear hug, worried that they wore suicide belts. He’d have lost his life had they been wearing them (they weren’t) but he’d have absorbed the explosion and saved the lives of his fellow SEALS. Where do we get such men?

What I said

Budget deal is meaningless theatre.

Waterfront will sell

9 East Point Lane (near Tod’s) listed at $4.950, has a contract. Not a house I liked at all, frankly, a contemporary that just seemed completely disconnected, but it does have great water views and even a tiny stretch of beachfront. That was enough for someone, obviously.

Expired listings

The new month brings expired listings – 13 of them today, and I find it curious to see how many must not really have been for sale.

29 Beechcroft

29 Beechcroft, for instance, owned by a famous ex-basketball player, is a very nice house but was priced at $7.950 a year ago and never budged, despite the spec house next to it falling to foreclosure and still languishing on the market. I’d put this one in Zillow’s “make me move” category.

200 Stanwich, also a great house, did drop its price from $7.895 to $6.995 but that obviously wasn’t enough to make a difference, especially with construction going on next door. I can’t tell you what this owner once turned down but believe me, I’m sure he thinks of it every night.

156 Parsonage, assessed at $1.7 and priced at $3.950, is another home that never dropped a penny from its price. There are a lot of houses like this in our inventory, and I ignore them.

UPDATE: 29 Beechcroft is back now as a “new” listing, asking $7.4 million. Too little, too late, is my guess.

My question is, if they’ll steal $100, what would it take to bribe them?

Yet another TSA employee caught stealing. These people come cheap and thus probably offer zero protection. Right after we eliminate the Departments of Education and Energy, let’s lop off the TSA.