Greenwich’s Rev. Moynihan to plead guilty to something, finally

I thought I was going to Penn State, not State Pen

Four years after he was arrested for stealing more than $500,000 from the parishioners of St. Michael church, Moynihan will plead to an obstruction of justice charge. No explanation in the article as to how theft and embezzlement was dropped to this charge, nor where he’s been all these years, whether any of the loot was recovered or how many choir boys were involved. I think a follow-up story is needed.

Math for the rest of us?

Don’t know much about Algebra but Riverside resident Brian Peldunas does and he’s got a website to prove it. Mr. Peldunas thinks the Board of Ed is providing our children a lousy math education and he’ll get no argument from me. Try his blog and see what he’s complaining about and what he suggests.

A contract

Some call it ugly

77 Londonderry, a 1987 house redone this year and on the market for just 32 days asking $4.199 million (!) has a contract. No house on Londonderry has ever sold for as much as $3 million, so this is quite a surprise – to me, anyway.  If you’re looking in this price range beware – there are, despite what you think, other buyers out there and some of them are buying. And even  willing to set new price records. Sheesh.

Many are called, few are investigated

Greedy, not needy

More than 800 state employees (defined as people who, regardless of whether they actually work, receive a salary from you) applied for emergency food stamps after Hurricane Irene. Fraud was suspected because, incredibly, you were supposed to be poor to participate and some wise guy thought to ask how someone earning $45,000 a year, plus benies, could be considered “poor”. Our government watchdogs have labored, squeezed mightily and finally produced a list of 24 such employees who, someday, will be “investigated”. The rest of the freeloaders get off scot-free and the state refuses to even guess if any of the Hartford Twenty-four will be prosecuted. Feel better now?

Can you still build a house in Greenwich?

I suppose so, but in the past two days I’ve heard two separate horror stories of homeowners who, despite complying with every rule and regulation the town thrust upon them, were still grievously delayed in completing their homes. The story I heard today was from a client who bought a building lot 18 months ago and is still a month away from completing his modest modular home. Not because of a slow builder, mind you, but because our town drags its feet inspecting, changes interpretation of regulations with every change of building inspector and often during one inspector’s tenure, based solely on whether the man’s underwear is too tight on a given day.

The bright spot is that a completed house is more valuable if it will take another would-be builder a couple of years to get past the hurdles at Town Hall. The downside is that, just like our floor area regulations, this stuff drives up the cost of housing and drives people mad. A better system would be to agree to turn a blind eye to bribery and let home owners know that they have honest building inspectors who, just like honest judges, will stay bribed when they’re first bribed.

Well dang! Obummer staying put in Washington over Christmas

It's back to D.C. for you, lazybones!

That gibe from Romney about “hands on” not meaning getting better grip on a golf club must have stung. I’ve said it before: Our president is welcome to leave the capital and stay away forever, just so long as he takes Congress with him.

China steals the iPad

I'll take that, thank you

Apple loses trademark case. If you understand, and you should, that Chinese courts are creatures of the government and do exactly the government’s bidding, then you’ll understand why no property is safe in that benighted land.

It astonishes me that so many companies, lured by the prospect of billions of buyers, do business with China when they know that within a very short time they will be stripped of everything of value. Their brief earnings spurt will be as nothing when they no longer have anything, yet they continue to go there. I say stupidity and greed but maybe there’s another,  less obvious reason.