Mark Steyn: Government-by-fake-disaster-movie

He’s not afraid.

If I understand correctly, by the time you read this, the planes will be dropping from the skies; the drip-feeds in every emergency room will be dry; every creature on the endangered species list will have broken free from our pristine federally manned national parks to be left for roadkill in the potholed asphalt of America’s crumbling interstates; you’ll turn on your bathroom faucet only to find the town reservoir choked with fecal coliform; the ebola virus will be rampant across Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire and other swing states, where it will nevertheless enjoy higher approval ratings than Marco Rubio and every other prospective GOP nominee. The sequester supposedly cuts $44 billion from the federal budget – or from the rate of growth of the federal budget. Whatever. $44 billion is about what the United States government borrows every nine days, so it’s not a lot. But it’s apparently responsible for everything that matters in American life.

That being so, maybe it would be easier to reinstate this critical $44 billion and cut the other $3.8 trillion, which is apparently responsible for nothing other than Harry Reid’s beloved federally funded cowboy poetry festival and the cost of the dress uniforms for the military detachment accompanying the First Lady at her Oscars appearance.

Can you pierce the mists of time and go back all the way to the year 2007? Back then, federal spending was 40 percent lower than it is today. In a mere half-decade, has all that 40 percent gravy become so indispensable to the general welfare that not even a teensy-weensy sliver of it can be cut?

If you really believe that, then America is going to die, and a gullible citizenry willing to give this laughable charade the time of day will bear ultimate responsibility. We have seen the boobs, and they are us.

Is flipping back?

16 Binney Lane (as proposed)

16 Binney Lane came back on the market today at $3.995 million after selling for $2.250 million last August and undergoing renovations since then. I’ll be curious to see it – its builder does good work, and $4 million is certainly not an unheard of price on Binney, but it’s doubtful that whatever renovations have been done cost anywhere close to $2 million, so if they pull this off, expect to see a hell of a lot more of such flips as the year progresses. Happy days (may be) here again.

And before you get worked up into a lather about a builder making a quick buck, remember that what someone paid for a property has nothing to do with its current market value. Buyers enjoyed one side of this rule in the past years as they picked up brand new houses well below the builders’ costs; it may the builders’ turn now.

It’s not a war on women (or girls) if a Democrat does it

17-year-old girl told by Connecticut Democrat Deputy Speaker of the House, Emmett Hewett, “and if you’re bashful, I have a snake sitting under my desk here.” Fellow Dems all chuckle. 

Confronted, the Democrat  was

Yes, yes, I can feel you being Ernest!

quite remorseful, blaming the miscommunication on ebonics:

Hewett said his remark came out wrong and he understood how it could be misconstrued. According to The Day of New London, he said Thursday: “What I meant to say was, if you are shy then I have an acre of land in the Everglades.”

I have no idea, nor do I want to know, who was the top

Come here, you little bitch!

Naked woman arrested for having sex with a pit bull. What Helen Thomas was doing with a naked woman beats me.

It’s been done before

Well if we said that, we didn’t mean it

Scientific “breakthrough”: researchers link two rat’s brains via computer. Slate calls it “a computer-mediated rat mind-meld”, I call it Hope and Change.

And a trickle more of real estate news

One sale, two houses being returned to the market for another go-round.

12 Indian Chase

12 Indian Chase, over by Bruce Park, sold for $2.950 million after asking $4.250 a year ago. It’s only my opinion, but this may be one of those cases where overpricing to begin with pays off down the road because a buyer looks at that first, crazy price and feels like he’s getting a bargain with his “low” offer. Just my opinion.

396 North Street

396 North Street is back, now asking $4.750 million. I remember liking this place back in 2007 but it was priced at $5.455 million, which I and, more importantly, buyers felt was too high. We’ll see if this reduction does it.

422 N. Maple

And 422 North Maple, which hasn’t sold since first hitting the market in December, 2011 at $4.995 is back now at …$4.995. I wrote about this house back when it was being built sideways on its lot and opined that it had better be a custom job, because if it was a spec project, its builder would probably have a hard time finding a buyer. So far, I was right.

Good news for the construction trades

Demand for land is strong and getting stronger. Two accepted offers already today, 21 Hope Farm Road, 2 acres, $1.995 million, gone in two days, and 142 Pecksland, 2+ acres, $1.695 asking. I saw Pecksland back in 2004 when it first came on at $2.995 and wasn’t impressed. At this last price, it probably makes sense.

Added feature

Randomly selected avatars for comments. Nothing personal, I just saw they were available and thought they’d be fun. Until they aren’t, when I’ll disappear them.

Couldn’t we just plant a nuke in the San Andreas Fault?

From, where else, San Francisco (hat tip, Brian Skinner):

Women put down their vacuums and pick up Joe Biden self-defense shotguns. Say, that works!

Pappa Joe failed to warn his listeners that, unlike an AR-15, shotguns carry a hell of a kick.

Sequester is like global warming – I’ll believe it when its faithful start acting as though it exists

 

Gulfstream V – “the country will serve you now”

DOJ head Eric Holder flies taxpayer-paid-for Gulfstream V for his personal use. 88 times since he moved to the head of the gravy train, and continuing.  What is it about private jets that so blinds the elite from seeing what they’re doing? Alternatively, what is it about being an elite that causes them to imagine that they have been graced by God to soar above ordinary humans?