India ushering in more of Heinlein’s “Bad Luck”

 

back to the future

Driving out telecom operators. Along with destroying its energy industry, a completely paralyzed legal system, systemic corruption and a communist infestation, the country seems embarked on a course back to its wretched poverty of a few decades ago. Funny how that works.

Quick, gang, Walt needs bail money!

Miss Beamer 2012

Walt Noel tries to skip out on $500 tab at Beamers, held on $230,000 bail. Walt used an assumed name but do we know anyone else who frequents the place?

STAMFORD — A man who claimed to have diplomatic immunity and millions in the bank vowed that the White House would be calling Stamford police with a reprimand Tuesday after he was arrested for trying to skip out on a nearly $500 bill from a Richmond Hill strip joint, police said.

Eddy “Walt”  Morales, 39, of Wethersfield Round Hill Road was held in lieu of $230,000 bond after police discovered he had nine warrants for his arrest on failure to appear in court charges. Morales was additionally charged with sixth-degree larceny after he was unable to pay his $467 bill at Beamers Cafe strip club Monday night.

 

When two or more of you shall battle in my name…

 

Suffer the little soldiers …

Obama recognizes his debt to his soldiers. He’s incredibly moved by  “those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf.” Uh huh.

I told you so, just yesterday

 

Democrat clam bake, Tod’ Point, 2007

Global warming solved, the statists move on to fatties. Monday’s Center for Disease Control’s obesity paper was the opening salvo, calling for new government policies and controls. The lib’s are just getting warmed up:

NBC: OBESITY ‘NO LONGER A QUESTION OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY,’ GOVERNMENT MUST ACT: AtNewsbusters, Kyle Drennen writes:

Touting new recommendations from an Institute of Medicine panel on obesity on Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News, science correspondent Robert Bazell proclaimed to viewers: “…a sea change in how we perceive obesity. No longer a question of individual responsibility, but a need to change what’s called an ‘obesity-promoting environment.’ Calling on corporations, government and individuals to act.”

Mind you, this is even before ObamaCare kicks in in 2014. These people – Dollar Bill, DC, JRH just being the ones we see on these pages – will never stop expanding the state’s power until they themselves are stopped.

If there was a spring market, I never noticed

House sales evaporated, Realtors return to their garden club

It’s still early May but things are quiet as a tomb over the Greenwich MLS  (I’d make a joke about brain dead but I seem to already be in the bad graces of the ladies down there, so I won’t). The only two accepted offers on houses asking more than $2 million were the two I’ve already discussed: 12 Stillman, asking $4.450, and 5 Riki Beth in Hillcrest Park, asking $2.175. That still leaves 184 listings asking more than $4.5 million and they aren’t selling.

We did have 25 new listings show up today but again, unpack the figures and they amount to nothing. Only five are single family homes in Greenwich while the rest are out of town or condominiums or rentals. Of the five, the most expensive is a house on Watchtower Lane in Havemeyer, asking $2.350 and prices decline quickly from there, ending at Bible Street, asking $549,000

And that’s it, so it’s back to politics until tomorrow, when the market reopens.

Democrats on Obama almost losing (Democrat) primary to imprisoned felon: we’re just a bunch of racists!

I’m no racist, I’d just like to come back from the dead and kick his black ass!

Well I agree with their assessment:  white Democrats are racists, as Dollar Bill and his lunch-box confiscating buddy MC demonstrate on these pages every day, but isn’t it a sign of desperation when they actually admit it? Shocking that the party of the Great Unifier, the Messiah who was supposed to heal the nation’s wounds and usher in a new era of racial harmony, now insists that there’s a bunch of yahoo, N-hating goons in their own party.

Between an already-incarcerated criminal and a future one, I’d guess the voters of West Virginia just didn’t see enough difference to matter. That’s not racism, that’s a clear-eyed view of what’s being offered by the Democrats this year. The stench of sweaty panic is beginning to seep from under the doors down there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

12 Stillman has a buyer, again

This house reported an accepted offer last month but it didn’t take. Today it’s got another accepted offer (or the same – sometimes deals fall apart and then come back together). Asking $4.450 million.

The Rockefeller development of Stillman and Sherwood is looking much less raw these days as trees and plantings mature. Most of the homes there – maybe all of them – have been built by Sean Shay and he crafts a very good house. The area has been whacked by the recession, though, perhaps even more than other areas. In 2007, homes here routinely asked $6.5 and up, even though they often ended up selling in the mid-fives, but the past two years have been tough. One built in 2007 and priced at $6.650 sold in 2009 for $4.850 and 10 Stillman asked $6.450, also in 2007, before selling for $4 million in 2010. Houses on Sherwood have fared no better.

So this one’s beginning price of $4.450 was a reflection of market realty and is now under contract in less than six months.

Going forward, Obama gets hammered from behind

Where you go I will follow, but not until after the election

The citizens of North Carolina have voted to ban gay marriage and even civil unions,which strikes me as a shame; I understand the marriage bit, since I think marriage should be a religious, not a state issue, but denying gays the right to a civil union is as bad as policing lunch boxes ( MC disagrees, I’m sure, since just like everyone else, gays are the property of the state and can be used and controlled as the state sees fit).

Now gay groups are demanding that the Democrats move their convention from NC  and Obummer is in a real quandary: he’s on record as opposing gay marriage, so he can’t really complain about North Carolina’s backing his own position, but gay rights are a huge part of the Democrat gestalt. What’s a spineless fella to do? Obama says his views on the issue “are evolving” – in the meantime, his staff is looking into the possibility of transferring the whole party to one of the spots Michelle’s been scouting: Hawaii, Mexico, Spain, Las Vegas, Aspen or, everyone’s favorite, the Vineyard. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: A reader alerts me that Obama has just come out of the closet and announced that in his personal opinion, but not as President of the United States who happens to be running for election in a bunch of states filed with bigoted rednecks, he’s all in favor of gay marriage. He also admitted that he likes Thin Mints best of all Girl Scout cookies but again, he will not be taking any steps to make that official policy of the White House.  He’s already won the Nobel Peace prize for his demonstrated political courage but maybe he can win it again?

This sounds discouragingly possible

On the Beach

1967 REDUX? Israeli historian Benny Morris argues in Tablet that the Middle East could be on the verge of another conflict a la 1967.

Mofaz will join Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a three-man kitchen Cabinet or the fuller eight-man “Inner Cabinet,” where the call of whether or not to launch a military strike against Iran will be decided. Both Netanyahu and Barak are on record as pessimists when it comes to the possibility that sanctions or diplomacy will stop Tehran’s march toward nuclear weapons. Both have made it clear that Israel will have to rely on its armed forces to resolve the problem, whether or not Washington gives Jerusalem a green light.

Thinking in Jerusalem is currently focused on the period between July, when a further round of sanctions against Iran will kick in, and the American presidential elections in November. Netanyahu and Barak believe that President Obama will find it very difficult to punish Israel for attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities just before the elections, since Obama will need the help of Jewish donors and voters, and other supporters of Israel, to win. On the other hand, an Israeli strike after the November elections will incur Obama’s wrath—and, some fear, could translate into sanctions against Israel.

Finally

5 Riki Beth Lane (must be related to “Kenmondo”, don’t you think?), in Hillcrest Park, has an accepted offer, last asking price $2.195, after a year on the market. I praised this house last fall to no effect, so don’t accuse me of having any power over the market. The owners didn’t really cut the price much over that time: $200,000, so why’d it sell now? It could be that the market has improved but I wonder whether the recent spike in south of the Village Old Greenwich hasn’t opened buyer’s eyes to neighborhoods like Hillcrest up in NoPo. For less than the price of a crammed – in  hovel further south, this has 1.14 acres and 6,000 + of nicely renovated house. There are certainly people who will live south of the Village or nowhere but there must also be people who want a real house for their money.

I’ve predicted that the same phenomenon will eventually spill over into Cos Cob but so far that’s really not happened – in addition to no control over an individual house’s selling price, I lack predictive powers too.

But I do have a blog.

Greenwich Waterfront Advisory Committee still disfunctional

Peter Tesei and friends appeal to Governor Malloy for rescue.

Squabbling at Town Hall. Harbor Master Ian MacMillan’s  push to update the location of existing moorings was shut down by his fellow committee members yesterday out of a (false, I think) belief  that the town ready knows where those moorings are. The Committee also rejected MacMillan’s  request to place permanent, rather than seasonal hazard markings near shoals and rocks. This latter proposal sank under the weight of opposition from our marine Superintendent Jeff Freidag, who pointed out that it would be his staff maintaining those buoys in January when no one’s on the water (and the only thing more dangerous than no marking is one that’s drifted off location, which happens quite often). I respect MacMillan but I also knew, and was a good friend of Jeff when he ran waterway operations at the Riverside Yacht Club for twenty years (even if I did call him “Fried Egg”) and there’s no one whose judgement on such matters I ‘d trust more, so I’d say he wins this one.

Next time you see Fudrucker, be sure to thank him for getting Ian appointed – it’s driving Peter Tesei crazy, because our First Selectman looks at Ian and sees Fudrucker, and providing a great deal of entertainment.

$1 million down, more to go?

122 Old Church Road has cut its price from $10.750 million  to $9.750. This will eventually be a fabulous house, or could be, but half-finished renovations are never worth what their owners think they are and don’t return what was put into the project. If you can’t finish, don’t start, is my advice.

It’s only 9:45, but bargain of the day?

11 Hycliff Road is reported sold today for $1.895.50. A beautiful house, to my eye, 5.75 acres, pool and tennis court – its sales price is going to whack the values of Baliwick down the road or it would if Baliwick prices hadn’t been taking such a hammering the past few years.

This one started out in 2007 at $4.995 which was a shame because I had clients interested in it back then but not at $5 million. This could probably have sold for $3, $3.5 had it been priced right five years ago, but what’s a mere $ million when your house is already empty?

Tell the truth, this house sat around so long that I was privately guessing it would sell closer to $1.5 million, but this price isn’t bad at all – for the buyer.

UPDATE: 17 Shore Road, which I’ve written about before, has cut its price from $1.795 to $1.725. Not a huge cut but it does signify some price flexibility on the part of the sellers. I really like this house – it’s small, but the owners have put every inch of it to good use and brought in a talented architect to help them. Backs up to the Innis golf course so it doesn’t feel boxed in like so many smaller houses in Old Greenwich. If you’re looking in the mid-to-high $1.6′s in Old Greenwich and have one or two kids (maybe three, if she’s very young), you may want to check this one out.

Dollar Bill and MC prepare for war!

And no cupcakes, either!

Fried chicken to be served at GHS football games. ”We’ll be moving immediately to ban this misguided, ignorant, dangerous plan,” Greenwich resident and statist  ”MC” told FWIW. “Greenwich residents, especially the project kids, are far too unsophisticated to be allowed to make food choices, and as wards of the state, they belong to us – we decide what goes into their bodies and you can be damn sure it’s not going to be fried food – crudite platters, tofu salads, sure. Meat and potatoes? Over our dead bodies.”

OK, the above is my own idea of how MC would react to the idea of feeding black kids Garden Catering deep fried food. But here’s what he actually did say just yesterday:

 People who receive state charity are part of the public domain and because of it receive public scrutiny.

Concurrently nobody knows or gives a shit what one fed the kids at the creek. However, when the kids enter the public domain, i.e. school, the playground, whatever and they are little monster maniacs -because all you’ve ever fed em are cocoa puffs and root beer, somebody is going to notice.

-The state/school board is empowered by the voters to enact guidelines of what students can consume while they are on public school property or under the daily care of public school staff. They also control what students bring onto school property. Witness Chicago public schools (and every other major inner-city)

Are MC’s comments about dictating food choices to black kids and their parents racist? Of course not – MC is a liberal and liberals, by definition, cannot be racists.

Don’t the mediocre deserve representation too?

Graduation Day for Bozo

Just as our current president never arose above jobs as community organizer and teaching assistant, Elizabeth Warren was also an assistant until she started to claim Indian heritage. Well that’s how the Messiah got promoted so no wonder he and his base like Warren – she’s taken a page from his crib sheet.

Would that our P&Z were under the same constraints

Aw come  on, stay for dinner!

Texas court rules that Homeowners Association can’t evict pet pig.

District court Judge Mike Engelhart ruled evidence is clear that this pig breed is considered a household pet and that they are not used for commercial purposes. He also said the dispute puts a spotlight on homeowner’s associations’ restrictions and residents’ property rights.

“I think we need to forget about his being about a pig for a moment and look at the broader issue of homeowner’s associations and residents,” Engelhart said. “Homeowner’s associations are there, on one hand, to maintain a neighborhood in a particular way, but they also have responsibilities not to infringe too much on homeowner’s use of their land the way they see fit.”

RTM Land Use Czar Peter Berg refused comment.

Why should Indiana have all the fun? A Richard Lugar moment in Town Hall

Martinis or beer at the next Republican picnic?

Ordinarily, Greenwich town politics is a pretty tame affair, with what little excitement there is being supplied by various Democrats squabbling over bathroom break priorities and who will lead their bi-annual “Defeat Bake” at Tod’s Point.

But now the Republicans (or hell, this could be just another Cos Cob dust-up, as most of the players come from there) have joined in and a majority of the RTM Finance Committee wants to impeach its head, Gordon Ennis. I know nothing about the issue but I do know a number of the players and if  Chris von Keyserling  is against  impeachment, I’m inclined to favor it. Regardless, it’s touching to see the Republicans trying to assert that “they can be fun folks too”.  A doomed, but noble attempt.