You have to read it to discover what’s in it, and Elizabeth Foley’s been reading it

OBAMACARE FUN FACT #4:  With an out-of-town trip and a editor’s deadline, it’s been a few days since I shared any Obamacare Fun Facts.  Now, I’m back at my desk, with the giant 2-volume bill on my desk, so I’m ready to start posting them again.  Here we go, fun fact #4:

$1.25 billion– yes, that’s “billion” with a “b”– for “centers of excellence for depression.“  [section 10410 of the Affordable Care Act]  These centers will engage in research and treatment of depression.

Wow– really?  $1.25 BILLION to universities and other entities to do something–treat and conduct research on depression–that they already have every incentive in the world to do? Indeed, there’s already a National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC)–consisting of 21 large institutions–that has functionally being doing this type of work since 2007.

What a boondoggle.  Makes me depressed.  Think I can get a grant?

Posted at 4:44 pm by Elizabeth Price Foley

Foley’s been guest blogging over at InstaPundit and has put up some great stuff.Don’t miss her dissection of the Great One’s “explanation” of high gasoline prices: “gas was cheap when I took office because that ol’ debbil’ Bush had us in a recession and now they’re twice as high because my economic plans have lifted us into the greatest recovery since my namesake rose up from the tomb”.

At least, I think that’s what he said. We have two choices, both bad: either he’s lying ,or he actually has no grasp of basic economic laws. Or both, of course.

Nothing doing today, either

11 Butternut Hollow Road

Not really anything of note  by way of sales or contracts to report. One price reduction worth commenting on is that for 11 Butternut Hollow Road, marked down to $2.150. Yes, it’s a 1962 colonial, not a popular model in Greenwich these days, but it was renovated in 2010, it’s on the good end of Butternut (no Merritt noise, close to town) and it sits on two acres of very decent yard. Good Lord, compare that to what you get in Riverside or Old Greenwich for the same price and get over your demand for 15′ ceilings, you little Napoleon you.

Revenge of the (Tater) Tots

 

Volunteer food gestapo and yes, he’s really flashing a peace sign while wearing a Che Guevara T shirt

School children rebelling against the Nanny Nutritionists from Washington and Republicans are encouraging them.

I‘d suggested doing just this a month ago. The kids may be too young to realize everything that’s being foisted on them by their massive centralized  government, but a ban on Happy Meals they can understand. Rise up, children, join the revolution!

That giant sucking sound is 63,000 jobs disappearing almost as soon as they were promised

Powerline has dug up a video of Michigan’s (Democrat) Governor and His Holiness crowing over all the new jobs battery maker A123 will be generating. The company ran out of energy before those jobs could be produced and yesterday declared bankruptcy. Oops! But our intentions were good, which is all that matters, right?

Sale, accepted offer

3 Hearthstone

3 Hearthstone, Riverside, sold for $1,320,000 (July contract). No mention in its listing sheet of any improvements made since it was built in 1958, but many agents neglect that part of the data input form, for some reason.

3 Azalea

3 Azalea, over in that almost-Stamford area of Cos Cob, has an accepted offer. Asking $1.375, down from its original price of $1.585 224 days ago. This was unsuccessfully marketed at $1.435 in 2000 – I’d say that pricing broker missed badly.

Slim pickings

I’ve got three clients looking for houses in the $3 million range (approximate) and having looked at just about everything out there with them, there’s not much that’s all that enticing. I’ve just spent the morning online, checking our entire inventory for something suitable for at least one of them – they do have different tastes and needs – and my conclusion is … blechh. While I was at it, I redid the search for two other clients, one under one million, one in the roughly $1 1/2 range. Blechh again.

Frustrating.

2 Parsonage Rd

One accepted offer reported today, 2 Parsonage Road, on the corner of Parsonage and North Street, asking $3.975 million. Owners paid $3.685 for it in ’08 but put in a lot more money fixing things the builder did wrong, like the roof (!?). A very nice house inside but North Street as a side yard gives me pause. Convenient location, though.

They’re the Yankees, not the Red Sox, so get ready to watch football or something

Down 3-0 and it’s not 2004