So who cut him down?

East Coast Rapist attempts suicide in jail cell Saturday.

It’s 3:00 am and the telephone rings; who is going to answer?

Khadaffy’s  tanks crush rebels.

British commandos on 24-hour notice, spies on the way to Libya.

Biden opens budget talks but then heads for Europe.

Braving the threat of impending storms, Obama heads for the links.

This is what happens when you let a shit-assed lawyer win a shit-assed case

Brendon Leydon, the moron who sued the town over beach access and won when our Supreme Court decided it hated Greenwich more than it loved the law, has now sued Greenwich, naturally, for a car crash on King Street but also Toyota. Toyota’s alleged sin? Its passenger window wasn’t strong enough to prevent the unbelted passenger from being ejected from the car and the care itself lacked stability control, a feature very much not required by law in 2001, when this car was manufactured and in fact is still not required today.

Handing an easy win like the beach case to a fat little boy just encourages him to think that he understands the law and is capable of practicing it. The proper answer to Leydon’s suit is immediate dismissal and the imposition of sanctions for daring to even file it but the way our court system works, that will  never happen. Too bad.

Okay, so there are nuts out west, too

Daydreaming on a Saturday night, I’ve been prowling through real estate listings for one of my favorite areas of the country, Taos, New Mexico. I came across this pos, unsold since last year, that’s just raised its price 5% (!). From what I can tell, Taos prices are still way down, so this seller isn’t floating on a rising tide. If he thinks he hasn’t sold his goldmine because it was priced too low well, some unsolicited advice from the east says he’s wrong. That dropped acoustical tile ceiling is a real downer, fella, and every room is so jamb-packed with cruddy furniture that you couldn’t interest a Somalian beggar in this place, let alone anyone who could afford it. Get a life, get a new, lower price.

Just my luck

Mention of In-N-Out burgers in California elicited the advice from reader Daniel to order one “animal style”. My interest piqued, I Googled the term and what do you know, the chain has an entire “secret” menu – all you need do is ask. Which would be great – I’ve read about the In-N-Out burger for years but in my few fleeting visits to the People’s State I never ran into a store. Now that I probably shouldn’t eat such things (or at least, can’t eat them with an easy mind) I learn that I could have made a magnificent, totally unhealthy meal out of them. Damn.

Foundation plantings

My Aunt Audrey, Bryn Mawr 1922, summed up her opinion of such plantings when she was around ninety: “awfully untidy, they remind me of pubic hair”. Audrey died at 100, unchanged in both her opinions and her delight in shocking her listeners, but she did have a point.

I’ve been working lately with a great couple and I’m pleased to say that, so far, they’ve liked everything Cathy Farricker and I have shown them – it means we’re doing our job, listening to them and sifting through the inventory to bring forth worthwhile houses. But even the best houses we’ve seen seem afflicted with bad foundation planting schemes. What must have seemed a good idea when certain shrubs, trees and whatnot were planted as babies have grown since into a dark forest of plantings far to close to the house, cutting off air and light, threatening foundations and bolloxing up the drainage.

Nothing that a chainsaw and a Bob Cat can’t cure, of course, but it’s a shame to see perfectly mature trees head for the chipper when they could have added value to a house were they 20 feet further away.

Chris “I will never become a lobbysist” Dodd’s new salary as a lobbyist

$1.5 million per year. If that keeps him out of Connecticut and off the Senate floor I supposed it’s worth it.

Aw, isn’t it cute? The children still believe in Allah

Video instructs children on how to become suicide bombers.

MERS – the other mortgage shoe drops

Half of all mortgages may be unenforceable. I’ve mentioned the Mortgage Electronic Registry Service before, but courts are finally wakening up the fact that this group, which has filing foreclosure suits on behalf of lenders, has no title interest of any kind and doesn’t seem to know who does.

How can MERS claim title to those mortgages, and foreclose on homeowners, when it has not invested a dollar in a single loan?

And, more fundamentally: Given the evidence that many banks have cut corners and made colossal foreclosure mistakes, does anyone know who owns what or owes what to whom anymore?

My Katie, as three-year-old, used to sum up certain situations as “this is instressing”. Indeed it is.

California dreaming

Brother Gideon is in California this weekend for a friend’s memorial service and reports that he stopped for breakfast on his way to Malibu. Breakfast for one: $42.00. Guess he missed the sign saying “for public service union members only”.

Ford signals retreat on electric cars

Of interest, perhaps, is that Ford’s the only US car maker not owned by the government. Is it possible that all this EV nonsense is merely political?