Yale murder plea

 The murderer of Annie Le pled guilty today  (he could be out in 27 years, which doesn’t please me) but I was struck by this picture of the young woman’s parents and her fiance. Ms. Le was killed on her wedding day and until now, it never occurred me that she was to marry another woman. The pain is  the same, of course, but my assumptions were wrong, Times have changed,and that’s not a bad thing. I’m not becoming a PC confessionist, but I do have family members in this new mix, and I’m okay with all of it. Screw the Right.

UPDATE: readers have alerted me that I got this all wrong and that the photograph shows the murderer’s parents and his fiance.I’m leaving it up as evidence that you should never trust me to get things right but also because, it doesn’t really matter. This was a posting about a horrible event, and nothing is really changed by my screwing up the sexual preference of the victim.

Out of here

While Rajamataz is on trial for his life (12-15 years of it, anyway) in lower Manhattan, everyone who wasn’t indicted in the Galleon Group  insider trading case has fled to Raj’s native Sri Lanka to watch a cricket tournament. This includes Fudrucker, an avid cricket player, who I’m told showed up on an FBI tape as someone “who knows things”.  Fortunately for Frankie, the recording went on to make clear  that the caller was referring to Frank’s knowledge of Manhattan and Connecticut real estate and not confidential information about corporations. Whew! Not an iPod recording you want to be part of. Anyway, while Frank’s away I’m  in charge of the office, so if you ever wanted a discount on real estate ….

I’m with the Irish on this one

 There are just four million people in the country and the EU thinks they should pay four billion euros to pay back a bunch of bankers? Sod off, says I. The citizens didn’t borrow this money, so why should they be obligated to pay it back?

What, me worry?

California’s pension fund, Calpers, is leaving its estimate of earnings at 7.75%. Not because anyone believes that, naturally, but because of pressure from state municipalities who would be forced to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to cover the shortfall. So they won’t come up with money, the pension funds will continue to go off the cliff and a decade or less from now, the state will go belly up. But the politicians holding office today will be gone by then, so what’s the problem?

Hillary Clinton on Obama: “It’s amateur night”

Reader WBH sent along this link.

UPDATE: More from Instapundit:

“WHERE ARE THE AMERICANS?” (CONT’D): “Despite the urgency, it appears that the Libyan insurrection likely will be over before the Obama administration makes any decision as to what to do about it. It may well be that the best course has always been to do nothing. But if that is the case, what was the point of Obama’s pronouncement that Qaddafi ‘must’ go? If it is important that Qaddafi go, then why is the United States unwilling to lift a finger to bring about the event that ‘must’ happen? And how can a situation simultaneously be urgent, but not worth doing anything about? Weakness, incoherence, drift, indecision–these are the hallmarks of the Obama administration. We are beginning to get a sense of what a world without American leadership looks like.”

Oh for Christ’s sake

Americans panicking over supplies of iodine. Yesterday  got a call from my beloved sister in California complaining that she couldn’t get ahold of the stuff. Get a grip! As one pharmacist points out, “we’re 10,000 miles away from Japan – the risks of taking the drug have got to be higher than the risks of radioactivity”. Perhaps this stupidity as a nation explains Obama’s election.

Rope-a-doping the Republicans

Swept into power by fed-up taxpayers, the Republicans are frittering away their energy on defunding NPR or, now, Planned Parenthood. We have to cut trillions –  these guys are reverting to form, pleasing their moral conservative base, and cutting a few million bucks, thereby lending demmerkrats great sound bites about the horror of it all and accomplishing absolutely nothing. How very discouraging.

Real estate

255Byram Shore

Can’t hurt to ask. The estate selling this Byram Shore Road property asked $4.4 million for it last year, sold it for $2 million yesterday.

22 Lockwood Road in Riverside, new construction, is under contract – last asking price was $2.850 which didn’t stir my loins but obviously did for some buyer. Oh well.

22 Benjamin Street in Old Greenwich, never on the market, has sold agent-to-agent for $1.605. I never saw it, so have no opinion.

I did revisit my aunt’s old house at 19 Dialstone in Riverside today and it really has been redone/expanded very nicely, with a pool added to its half-acre. I’d still prefer it priced at $2.3 million instead of its $2.830, but that’s just one man behind a keyboard’s opinion. The market will value this house, not I.

Open house Thursday – a bust

I really do want to see new inventory -it’s what I do – but there is nothing up on the sheets today. I’m guessing that sellers have figured out what I’ve been preaching – if you don’t have to sell in today’s market, then don’t. But there is a real dearth of inventory in the $2-$3 million range, especially in Riverside and Old Greenwich, so if you have a house, …

New Mel Gibson film “Beaver” is well received

Down in Austin, folks liked it. I’m undecided on this. I can, and do overlook  muscians’ mostly leftist political positions because I just like the music, but when someone like Sean Penn cozies up to dictators or a guy like Gibson reveals himself to be a raving anti-Semite and a wife beater, do you, should you ignore it? I’m inclined to think that once a line is crossed, there’s no forgiveness, but who knows how many other entertainers are just as bad but simply haven’t been caught publicly? Maybe you go for the art – I still wish Tiger Woods would come back to brighten my Sunday TV viewing, for instance – and ignore the rest. It’s a conundrum. But I’m pretty sure that Gibson has gone beyond the pale, for me.

Parity at last

 Now you can run away from the cops on your bicycle. Ford ends Crown Vic production and the police are being re-focused’. Hah!

No doubt his union is protecting him

Los Angeles union guy rapes, orally sodomizes and uses the third passage to abuse patient. No word yet from reader Dollar Bill, but I suppose we can expect him to defend his friend – what, you want hin to grovel for a $7 an hour job?