I hate to be harsh, but Libertarians warned of this decades ago

(Former) Giant Stadium

Stadiums abandoned, taxpayers stuck with the bill. Duh.

Good discussion on the housing market

The NYT reporter is bullish – I have my doubts, but he does present both sides of the argument. We do agree on this: if you’re planning to stay for three years or less, rent.

I’ve posted this link before, but here it is again: over 350 years, Amsterdam’s property values always return to norm. The thought being, so too, with the rest of the world.

Oops!

You can cut the ice cap melt-off by half. Never mind!

Coyote trouble

Pretty weird. I haven’t encountered coyotes here in the east (although I did see one loping through Binney Park early one morning, last spring), but the ones I ran into out west were always timid creatures. So what’s with the aggressive behavior now? Rabid, or just too familiar with humans? Interesting phenomenon, for sure.

I locked Walt and Cobra in their closets

Greenwich Police: No D.U.I . arrests over Labor Day weekend.

Bad news for Californians, good news for foxes

“Extinct” species of red fox is living near Yosemite.

Sierra Nevada red fox (LA Times)

Missing since 1920. Daughter Kate recently saw a Spotted Owl near Arcata, CA. The people she spoke to were dubious at first but when they learned of her experience in animal and insect studies, they recruited her as an observer/reporter – loggers will not rejoice.

Shocker: Al Sharpton’s “charity” is a fraud and broke

How could this be?

On the other hand, Mark Chapman was denied parole again

Killed John Lennon twenty-nine years ago. Seems like yesterday, but I haven’t spent those years in Attica, as Chapman has. Let him rot.

Open house thieves get probation

Aw, they had “mental problems”.

A brazen blonde bandit got a sweet deal today for filching tens of thousands of dollars worth of cash, fancy furs, jewelry and designer purses from open-house showings at luxury Manhattan apartments.

Prosecutors agreed to the dismissal of felony larceny charges against Jessica Joyner, 41, explaining that she’s doing well in therapy, has completed a shoplifting program, and has not been rearrested since the bizarre 2007 rob spree.

The dismissal of felony charges against Joyner marks the end of an eyebrow-raising series of “Thelma and Louise” robberies — committed with her partner-in-crime, Jennifer Jones, 39 — that, in their day, shook up the world of high-end real estate open houses.

Joyner and Jones would toss on heavy makeup and wigs and pose as wealthy home buyers at upscale house showings throughout the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Bergen County, NJ.

One would distract the real estate agent. The other would roam the property unsupervised, stuffing valuables into her pockets and bags. Both have confessed, pleaded guilty and told sob stories about addictions and mental health problems.

“Some would say this was a cry for help,” Joyner’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said of the robbery spree.

Others would say it was a cry for imprisonment.

Toy Pony blown up by bomb squad

Great pictures, but what the f..k?

When sellers aren’t serious

I won’t embarrass the seller by revealing the address, but a mid-country house is back on the market today for the same price, $2.795, that it failed to sell at last year. It’s an old, 1967 home and has been for sale since 2008, starting at $3.195 and barely budging.

I had clients who, last November, offered $2.3 for the house next door. Their offer was rejected, rudely, and we went elsewhere. That house sold last month for $2.1. I suspect a similar result awaits this one, next year.

A lucky seller

41 Valleywood, Cos Cob

Sold (2008) $1.750, sold last week, $1.535.

2004 pricing in Riverside

46 Oval Avenue

Sold for $1.296 in October, 2004, back on today for $1.295. Wise seller – will they get it?

Home Equity Loans – bad news for banks

Billions owed with no equity.

A far more interesting fish story than any I have

Man catches shark, with man inside. Parts of the poor bastard, anyway.

The delusion continues

Nothing on the open house tour today and the few price cuts taken are mere tokens. How dull.

Pardon Billy the Kid?

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson wants to pardon Billy the Kid – he must be planning to run for some higher office, but I don’t understand who he thinks his constituency is. I’m related to Col. Albert Jennings Fountain, who defended the Kid at trial and lost – the Kid was guilty as Hell – but the Colonel was, I hope, paid to provide legal services. What’s Richardson up to?

Pure genius

Your next Congressman?

Republican operative recruits bums to run on Green ticket, siphons votes from Democrats

TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk.

Mr. Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’sDemocratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.

Heartbreak

Dummy

Illiterate Fifth Grader held back, NY Post weeps.