That was before Mommy elected Obama, Honey

If I had a muppet for a son, he'd be Barack Hussein

From Democrat Underground, this touching vignette: 

Today before school my twelve-year-old saw the story about Trayvon. She turned to me, put her hands on her hips and said in a very angry voice, “What is going on? I thought our country was through with racism?”

But it was for a good cause, so that’s alright

Oops!

After the Black Panthers announced a $100,000 bounty on the life of Floridian George Zimmerman, basketball fan Spike Lee Twittered Zimmerman’s home address. Only problem (aside from trying to  encourage lynch mobs to descend on and kill Zimmerman) was that he published the wrong address.  The home Lee identified as Zimmermans is in fact owned and occupied by a couple in their 70s with no connection whatsoever with the shooter, and they’re scared witless. Mr. Lee has neither apologized nor made any effort to correct his hateful act. “Waitin’ to see if they be white”, he says (or might just as well have said), “in which case it makes no nevermind.”

Surprisingly, the Great Divider, who jumped on the lynch wagon himself and urged it on last week, has nothing to say about this latest development.  Welcome to post-racial America.

"If I had a son, he'd be just like Spike"

Right after they ban cellphone towers they’ll be going after Scotch Tape – “if it saves the life of just one child …”

Peeling Scotch Tape generates X-rays

January contract, today’s sale

18 Grahampton, 3 acres in the RA-2 zone, lovely old house, beautiful yard, good location. Sold for $3.550 million on a $4.2 million ask.

55 Binney Lane sells

At $9.250 million. Acre of waterfront, 1929 house that needs a complete gut job, if it survives the wreckers ball, and a dock, which are hard to obtain permission for these days (and you go figure that one out). Four years ago I suggested that the proper listing price should be $10.5 million, instead of the then-asking $16.8 million. Funny thing is, when the new broker did list it for $10.5, he found a buyer, albeit at a still lower price. I’m guessing the seller would have done better had it priced it properly to begin with but maybe he just didn’t want to part with the place. Long time for a house to sit empty but there’s no accounting for taste.

Back again

21 Vineyard Lane is back on the market after expiring unsold a couple of weeks ago and still priced, unchanged, at $6.495 million. I saw this house back in September and thought that was a decent price for a house of this beauty and quality – obviously, its owners agree, since they won’t cut the price.

Buyers just as obviously don’t agree, although to be fair, the market for $5 + homes is just about dead right now. I’ll concede that the yard is only so-so, like almost every other yard on Vineyard, but the house itself is fantastic and I doubt you could duplicate it for this price were you building new. Still, the fact that it remains unsold is saying something.

Price cut

822 North Street (across from Conyers Farm) has dropped its price to $7.450 million, down from $8.450 (this is its second bite) and just a shade under the $7.5 the owners paid for it in 2002. The listing says that 2011 renovations “make it feel like new construction” which I guess I’d lump under the “maintenance” category but regardless, it’s all going with the house, no charge.

It’s been twelve years since I’ve seen this house; I do remember it as quite nice but on a weird, narrow lot that stretches way back but affords no privacy from the neighbors. Maybe they’ve planted trees to correct that.

Price disclosed

Hey, the garage doors are where they are because that's how the land lays out - live with it

27 Orchard Drive in Milbrook has sold for $3.025 million. I really liked this house and so did the client I showed it to but he wanted a larger backyard (it has the Milbrook pond behind it) and perhaps a bit less I-95 noise. Superb quality in construction, though. The sellers paid $1.950 for the property in 2007 and basically tore it down and rebuilt it at a cost, I’m guessing, that $3 million didn’t come close to recovering. They were undone by, who else, the Town of Greenwich building inspector who, after replacing the former inspector, came in when it was just about complete and forced them to undo nearly everything that had been inspected and approved by his predecessor. Not because there was anything wrong with what had been done, mind you, but merely to show what an asshole he was. I believe the gentleman is no longer in our employ but the damage was done to these folks – they missed the market.

Anyway, they started off at $3.849 in 2009, dropped it to $2.750 in January, 2010, raised it (haven’t I told you this never works?) to $3.950 in April, 2011, dropped it to $3.250 this past November and finally found a buyer in January. But after all that turmoil, the buyers are getting a very nice house, and at an excellent price, I think.

No wonder politicians ride limos instead of using D.C. mass transit, it’s racist!

Rosa Parks must be spinnin' in her turnstile!

97% of all D.C. bus, subway drivers are white. “Metro derailed by culture of complacency, incompetence, lack of diversity”

The homogeneity, interviews with dozens of current and former Metro workers indicated, is a proxy to a clubby culture of favoritism in which merit has little to do with promotions, and accountability, such as noting safety violations, is a career death knell. In typical examples, court and Metro records show, a white man who spent eight years in prison for dealing PCP was promoted to a high-level management position soon after his release, and blacks in the same positions as whites with far less seniority are inexplicably paid less.

With Metro’s budget chronically strained and reports of mismanagement coming more regularly than trains, interviews and internal records depict a likely root: an environment in which hardworking employees are actively excluded and those who rise are those willing to do the bare minimum — never causing a stir by flagging rampant safety violations, reporting malfeasance or proposing improvements.

Black and Hispanic employees who allege discrimination have found a deaf ear at Metro’s civil rights office, whose 17 employees are white.

Shocking, simply shocking. I’m sure once Obummer finishes race-baiting in Florida he’ll turn his attention to this matter.

So, when $7 million dollar houses drop to $6 million, what happens to $6 million dollar houses?

85 Richmond Hill Road sold for $7.1 million in 2006, was listed again in 2007 for $8.890 (snicker snicker, hoo hoo) and today is asking $6.144.

Starbucks to open in Fort McHenry

Room for milk?

Baltimore contemplating selling off its historic landmarks.

So, when $4 million dollar houses drop to $3 million, what happens to $3 million dollar houses?

Just asking

13 Hutzinger, purchased for $4.050 million in 2002 and relisted in 2010 for $3.950, has cut its price today to $3.250 million.

He promised, he delivers

"You can build one, but I'll bankrupt you" Barack Hussein Obama, campaign pledge, 2008

Obummer’s EPA to shut new coal-powered energy plants, beginning Tuesday.

If you thought gas prices will never stop rising, just wait until you see what happens to electricity after the Barack Obama’s EPA gets its way.  The agency will deliver on Obama’s election promise to bankrupt any new coal-fired electrical production in its first-ever regulations on greenhouse-gas emissions, the Washington Post reports.  The new regulatory regime will all but guarantee that new coal-fired plants won’t be built to replace others shutting down.

Collectivism keeps growing

They laugh alike, they look alike they even always think alike, what a crazy world!

(AJ sends this along): Britain: schools bar children from having a “best friend”. “Play in groups, little darlings, and listen to the Great Leader”.

Who needs a Prius when there’s no need to drive?

Ho hum, yet another Tuesday broker open house day is upon us and there’s nothing worth wasting gas on. I see that 76 Winding Lane is back, now asking $12.750 instead of its 2010 price of $14.950 but that’s not enough of a price cut to stir me from my desk. Nice house on 4.5 acres,, close to town, but there are lots of nice houses close to town in this price range so nothing particularly special going on here. I do note that the listing says “buyers must be pre-qualified”, which is kind of an anachronism these days. Not that it’s an unreasonable request, but most of us agents aren’t going to waste our time showing houses to people who can’t afford them and getting a letter from some banker is just another hurdle for a potential buyer to jump over – they’ll probably decide to just go see another house. But whatever keeps the would-be seller happy.

While Obummer strives to shut down our shale gas production, guess who’s gearing up to produce their own?

We don't need no stinkin' gasses!

Yup, China, which has twice as much as Canada and the US combined. (Not that you’d know that from this “science is settled” Greener’s web site). Now why would the Messiah try to curtail our energy production when he knows that China will soon be cranking out twice what we could, and twice the green house CO2? Either he’s as stupid as the Greener movement members, a not impossible conclusion, or he has a larger agenda. While he won’t tell us which it might be, perhaps he’ll tell Vladimir during their next pillow talk session.

Rare footage: Barack Hussein cuddling up to Russkies

Democrats kill teacher tenure reform

“Delay” it for a non-election year but a bill hammered out by the teacher’s union and their Democrat flunkies isn’t about just delay, it’s about sending the proposal to oblivion. But don’t despair, they did manage to cut funding for charter schools.

“We had two members of the legislature, Democratic co-chairmen, in closed-door meetings with lobbyists and special interest groups,” McKinney said. He said they “locked out their own members, locked out Republicans completely from the process.”

“It would appear that on every major issue, whether teacher evaluation, certification, … charter schools, the dismissal process for a teacher… All of the most significant issues have been dramatically changed in this bill,” McKinney said.