No tornadoes, no hurricanes, what’s a global warming profiteer to do?

 

Boo!

Number of hurricanes hits 30 year low.

Russians seize two Ukrainian warships, US responds

Don’t make me laugh – it hurts

The Russians step up the pressure. In the face of looming fears of war, United States Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he’ll be dispatching “scientific experts” to Uganda to discuss and explain the root causes of homosexuality to that nation’s president. 

Nancy Pelosi loses what’s left of her little mind

“It’s not Obamacare, it’s the Affordable Care Act! The Affordable Care Act! The Affordable Care Act! The Affordable Care Act! The -aaiiieehhhhh!”

Of course it’s not actually affordable, nor does it provide care, but that’s another matter.

First post-Sandy Lucas Point contract?

4 Middle Way

I think so. Four Middle Way, asking $4.750 million, reports a pending contract. It started at $5.1 million back in 2012, so this isn’t much of a mark down. Great house, beautifully renovated, not much of a yard but then, you’re steps away from the private Lucas Point beach and only a few hundred yards from Tod’s. Lucas Point was always one of the best neighborhoods in Old Greenwich and I’m glad to see buyers are rediscovering it.

I knew the Lakers were having a bad year, but this bad?

 

Dribblin’ past the Prez

Kobe Bryant says even Obama could play for the team now.

Open House tour results

8 Watchtower Lane

Really just one that caught my eye, 8 Watchtower Lane, Havemeyer, $1.729 million, which is a very good price in this market (tip of the hat to Shore & Country, who priced it). The listing shows it as built in 1953 but it was totally redone – I’d be surprised if there’s anything original except the foundation – in 2010, and it’s in excellent condition, with a huge new kitchen and all the rooms modern tastes demand. Plus, it has a walk-up, usable attic, which in these days of FAR restrictions, is a fast-disappearing amenity.

Watchtower itself is one of my favorite streets because you can see Long Island Sound stretching out in the distance and the sense of space that lends to crowded suburbia is really a great feature. Nice neighbors, too.

If this were 2010, say, I might think $1.529 would be closer to the right price, but houses in this fine condition, in Old Greenwich, are scarce, and I expect this will sell quickly, at very close to this price. Nice home.

Note: the pictures of this house don’t do it justice – definitely should be seen in person. The internet is essential to real estate searches these days, but not sufficient in some cases, and this is one of those cases.

This may not work, even in France

français de lavage de voiture

French mayor, stopped for doing 100 mph in a 55 zone, claims he was doing so only to dry his car after leaving a car wash.

Mr Hennon said: ‘I’d been to the car wash and on the way back I may have accelerated for around a kilometre, no more, to dry the car out.

‘It may seem a strange excuse but it is a sincere one.’

The girls he left behind: Obama heads for Disneyworld to push for equal pay for women while female White House staffers suffer

It’s off to Orlando for the Golfer-in-Chief, where he’ll press for a narrowing of the gender wage gap. 

Back at home, “the girls” being paid 12% less than their male peers may wonder, if only a little bit, about Barry’s sincerity on this issue.

“The privilege of working with real men is worth at least this tiny, 12% slice,” White House spokesman Jay Carney explained, “plus, we give ’em free condoms. I mean, come on, people!”

Hippies discover that bums stink

Boulder reinstates jail time for vagrants.

The most open and transparent administration in history

Revealed: White House press corp submits its questions in advance, gets written answers back beforehand and then Jay Carney appears in front of the cameras and lip synchs.

I mentioned this last week, but it bears repeating

Global warming a crisis? Not for Democrats.

Senate Democrats are willing to talk about climate change all night if it will please a major donor, but when it comes to casting tough votes they take a pass. Despite all the talk, no serious climate legislation is on the table in the Senate. Worse, the same Senators who claim climate change is an urgent problem support legislation to increase the nation’s vulnerability to the threat of warming-enhanced storm surges and potential sea-level rise. Just three days after the climate talk-a-thon, all-but-one of the Senate Climate Caucus voted to gut recent reforms of the National Flood Insurance Program that reduced federal subsidies for coastal development. In other words, the same Senators who say climate change is an urgent threat are happy to have taxpayers and other premium payers subsidize coastal development that lies in harm’s way.

It’s easy to score the Senate Climate Caucus for being full of hot air — and all but two Senate Democrats for voting to roll back fiscally responsible and environmentally sound NFIP reforms — but they’re not the only ones supporting bad policy here. The same billpassed the House and President Obama is expected to sign the bill, even though he claims the federal government needs to prepare for climate impacts. Continuing federal subsidies for coastal development hardly increases the nation’s climate resilience.

You’ll recall that Clinton declined to send the Kyoto Protocol treaty to his Democrat-controlled senate because he knew it would fail. No president since has done so either.

More of the same

Smug in Cos Cob – Greenwich RTC

Jim Campbell unanimously reelected to head Greenwich Republican party. “We’re the party of stasis,” Campbell crowed to FWIW. “We keep MISA going, the school board stuffed with yes men, and taxes on a steady climb. We’re the party of steady habits and we’re proud of it.”

UPDATE: Turns out I jumped the gun, and this is an article from two years ago – the “election” will in fact be held next week, on the 26th. I pulled this, on the thought that I’d save it for then but on reconsideration I’ve put it back up, because it will be as true then as it is now. You always get the local news here at FWIW, sometimes before it happens!

They’re not in Kansas anymore

Hide! Al Gore’s coming to lecture us!

Third straight year of record low tornado activity.

2007, NASA: Global warming will spawn severe storms, tornadoes.

2011: The Atlantic: Global warming unleashing more tornadoes

2013: UN advisor Jeffrey Sachs: tornadoes caused by human-induced global warming.

Climate liars like Rupert Murdoch & Koch Brothers have more & more blood on their hands as climate disasters claim lives across world.

— Jeffrey D. Sachs (@JeffDSachs) November 10, 2013

Why don’t people like me take anthropomorphic global warming seriously? Because of fraudulent scare-mongers like these.

CNN – the “news” channel

CNN explains the milk shortage

CNN host: Is it preposterous to think that Flight 377 disappeared into a black hole?

Tonight at six, “CNN Special Investigative Report: What if Superman were aboard Flight 377, but someone had placed Kryptonite in the overhead compartment – could he still have saved the plane?”

Mayors’ solution to high taxes: “take more money from other towns and give it to us.”

What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Greenwich Ave?

That’s what Stamford’s mayor was begging for up in Hartford yesterday and he was joined by other towns’  politicians  asking for what they claimed was an “equitable” division of the tax pie.

“I’m asking you to be heroes to your towns, big and small,” [Stamford mayor Martin, D.] told the committee that sets statewide spending levels. He asked the committee to endorse his idea of a one-time award of about $58 million from the current projected surplus of $500 million to help towns and cities cope with the unexpected expenditures from the tough winter.

Under Martin’s proposal, towns and cities alike would receive $3,360 per mile of locally maintained road. He said the disparity of local incomes and tax bases varies widely throughout Connecticut’s 169 municipalities.

Nowhere in the mayors’ presentation was mention made of who would pay additional taxes to fund this giveaway, but Martin did show his hand, obliquely:

In particular, Martin said Stamford and Norwalk both need a boost in their state school funding.

“The state of Connecticut is the most balkanized state in the country,” Martin said during a 2½-hour presentation from members of CCM and the Council of Small Towns.

“We are also an urban city surrounded by wealthy suburbs,” Martin told lawmakers. “We like to think of ourselves as the economic engine of Fairfield County and the economic engine of the state. This engine, like any engine, needs gasoline to keep running.”

Unlike the central government in Washington, Connecticut can’t print its own money, so an equal payment to “all towns, big and small” can only be funded by taking money from “rich suburbs – that would be Greenwich – and passing it out to the rest. Quelle surprise.

The Yakee wins! Thaaaaaaaah Yakee wins!

Unity session – Greenwich Democrats sing Kumbaya after raucous leadership battle

After a fierce internecine battle, one that saw both sides employ stink bombs, switchblades and revocation of parking permits, Democrat Francis Fudrucker defeats challenger Beth Crumbcake by exactly one vote.

Fudrucker was magnanimous in victory, telling FWIW, “the lady was just doing what she was told to do by her boss, Peter Tesei, and I understand that – a strong, dominant alpha-male like Tesei can have his way with many women, and Beth, I’m told, is a woman. So I forgive her,” he said, adding “but just because you forgive someone doesn’t mean you have to stop hating her.”