As Obama moves to regulate the internet, it can’t hurt to remember this, from the Obama crowd

Lethal Weapon I, 1987, high-tech cellphone: who could ask for anything  more?

Today, renegade (Republican) FCC members warned about their fellow commissioners bowing to Obama’s demand and preparing to subject the internet to central government planning.

[T] he duo wrote Monday that heavy-handed FCC regulations like those imposed in Europe will significantly slow down Internet speech.

“These Internet regulations will deter broadband deployment, depress network investment and slow broadband speeds. How do we know? Compare Europe, which has long had utility-style regulations, with the United States, which has embraced a light-touch regulatory model. Broadband speeds in the United States, both wired and wireless, are significantly faster than those in Europe. Broadband investment in the United States is several multiples that of Europe. And broadband’s reach is much wider in the United States, despite its much lower population density,” the two wrote.

They also joined to warn about the Democrat-chaired Federal Election Commission eyeing regulation of political speech on the Internet.

A move to the “European model” in any capitalistic market is always the preferred result by the sophisticates running the Democratic Party, so to them, that’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Others of us are not so convinced.

I was at the cutting edge (as a lowly salesman) of the telephone industry’s breakthrough in technology and price cutting in 1976, when the monopoly of Ma Bell, which had been protected by an entrenched regulatory system, was finally broken and the floodgates opened. Nothing that’s occurred since then, including, say, cell phones, train freight and air routes and prices,  has convinced me that we need a federal group of bureaucrats deciding what products and services are “needed” by consumers, and what products and pricing levels will threaten the established players they’re paid to protect.

If you want a taste of what’s to come, go back 30 years, and see what one of those sophisticates thought about laptop computers, and imagine him sitting on a regulatory board deciding on whether such a product should be approved:

NYT, 1985: The portable computer is, and will remain, a niche product that few people need.

The limitations come from what people actually do with computers, as opposed to what the marketers expect them to do. On the whole, people don’t want to lug a computer with them to the beach or on a train to while away hours they would rather spend reading the sports or business section of the newspaper. Somehow, the microcomputer industry has assumed that everyone would love to have a keyboard grafted on as an extension of their fingers. It just is not so.

Yes, there are a lot of people who would like to be able to work on a computer at home. But would they really want to carry one back from the office with them? It would be much simpler to take home a few floppy disks tucked into an attache case. For the majority of consumers, a second computer for the home office is usually an inexpensive clone of the one at work. Not only is such an alternative more convenient, but it is more cost effective as well. In fact, one ends up with better technology.

But the real future of the laptop computer will remain in the specialized niche markets. Because no matter how inexpensive the machines become, and no matter how sophisticated their software, I still can’t imagine the average user taking one along when going fishing.

Head for the hills

21 Heusted Drive

21 Heusted Drive, in one of Old Greenwich’s flood zones, has a contract – asking price, $1.495 million. Take a look at the picture, which is of the front, not the back, as I’d first assumed. No garage, a ladder to the stars leading up the the living space, and ugly, ugly ugly. The new look of Greenwich,presented for your consideration by our Department of Planning & Zoning.

How do you make a small fortune on Porchuck? Start with a large one.

128 Porchuck Rd

128 Porchuck Road, which last sold for $5.2 million in 2003, had to drop its price to $4.495 before finding a buyer this time. Worse, that figure is just the last asking price, not the negotiated sale price, which will undoubtedly be lower. Ouch.

There’s really only one, overriding shocker: it’s not part of the United States

We’re Americans and we’re okay …

Ten things about Canada that shock foreigners

The article lists a bunch of silly things, like finding milk sold in plastic bags, but at least when I was bumming around Europe, most people thought Canada was just another part of the United States. Really pissed my Canadian travel mates off, just as New Zealanders were outraged that the rest of the world thought they were Australians (see? You thought they were, didn’t you? But no, they’re actually a separate country). That was all forty years ago, but I bet it’s still true.

November contract, sale today

6 Ferris Drive

6 Ferris Drive, Old Greenwich, $1.295 million. This hit the market in April at $1.450 million, which is the same number I’d suggested when the owners asked me for a price opinion, so obviously I thought that a good price. But only when they dropped it to $1.295 did they get a buyer. Since it went for full price, I’m guessing there were other buyers hovering around at that lower price.

I thought it was a good house, I-95 be damned, and for what’s available, I think the buyers did well at $1.3.

Which is not to say that, sometimes. dogged persistence doesn’t pay off

310 Sound Beach Avenue

310 Sound Beach Avenue, Old Greenwich, has been listed at $1.695 for two full years and never budged. Today, it reports a contract. There seems to be no debt on the property, so I assume the sellers’ intransigence was due entirely to their determination to get their desired price. Good for them, but for many owners, the idea of having their house subject to showings, at any time, for two years, is daunting.

So this is where the Democrats got their bogus figure

As a government official,Hillary paid her female workers $0.72 for every dollar she paid men.

Interesting case

Off to work at the mall

Can an employer – in this case, Abercrombie and Fitch – refuse to hire a woman to model its clothes because her religious beliefs require her to wear certain clothes?

The US Supreme Court will hear a dispute Wednesday over Abercrombie & Fitch’s decision not to hire a 17-year-old Muslim girl who wore a headscarf that would have violated the store’s notorious “Look Policy.”

The woman in question merely wanted to wear  headscarf, true, but the principle would seem to extend to the full extent of religious garb, for dozens of religions. Like Orthodox Jews, and American Indian shamans.

 

I think I can, I think I can

Perseverance

5 Kernan Place, Old Greenwich, on the market since 2011, when it asked $4.450 million, has returned after its last listing expired, and is now asking $3.3 million. It’s a really nice house, but it has no yard whatsoever for children to play on, yet it offers 5 bedrooms and 6,000+ square feet, and so it seems to me (and, obviously, buyers over the past four years) to be neither fish nor fowl.

Great place to host three-generation holidays, however.

As if we needed one, another reason to keep Hilary out of the White House

Chief Clinton Foundation medical advisor, Dr. Kamana Do’nbee Shitenmee

Hillary’s and Bill’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Buster Hyman, is a total quack and nut-job.

Over the last decade, Dr. Hyman has become not just the primary medical adviser for Bill and Hillary Clinton, but one of their inner circle in whom—as a New York Times April 2014 article on him makes clear—they place great trust. While outlets like the Daily Beast are presenting the “Clinton doctor” as the man whose alternative approach to medicine could finally “fix healthcare,” some in the science community are getting increasingly nervous about the amount of faith Bill and Hillary place in Dr. Hyman—a man whose work is listed on Quackwatch, whose “faux autism cure” has been blasted by experts as reckless at best, and who promotes “functional medicine,” a blend of pseudoscientific practices, science-based medicine, and trendy popular health advice.

As the New York Times explained in April, the Clintons have been turning to Hyman for their advice on healthcare issues for nearly a decade, when they first sought him out in response to Bill’s quadruple bypass surgery in 2004. In addition to highly valuing his personal health advice, the Clintons have clearly come to perceive Hyman as holding many of the answers to healthcare in general, turning to him, as the NYT noted, for direction on “health-related issues at the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.”

While Hyman was trained as a family doctor, he spent 8 years working as the co-medical director of the Canyon Ranch “integrative wellness” resort in Lenox, Mass. After his time at Canyon Ranch, Hyman went on to found the “UltraWellness Center,” which offers members a wide range of materials they can purchase, including some of Hyman’s popular dietary books. He is perhaps best known for The Blood Sugar Solution and its sequel The Blood Sugar Solution: 10-Day Detox Diet, but he also wrote Ultraprevention (listed as “nonrecommended” on Quackwatch) and helped develop, along with Rick Warren, a “biblical-based” healthplan called The Daniel Plan.

As his website indicates, Hyman and UltraWellness has become a major brand.  He has made appearances on various popular health and talk shows and is now the chairman of  The Institute of Functional Medicine.  But he is perhaps becoming increasingly recognized as “the Clintons’ doctor.” With Hillary’s likely 2016 campaign approaching, some in the scientific community have begun to worry about the implications of the Clintons’ deep confidence in the leader of the “functional medicine” movement.

“If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party nominee in 2016, I’m likely to have a real dilemma,” wrote surgeon and science blogger Dr. David Gorski in April. “Should I vote for her, knowing that she’s likely to appoint people like Dr. Hyman to health policy positions?”

What is it about homeowners and denial?

Not just a river in Egypt

When a house has been on the market for a sufficient period of time to tell home sellers that they’ve overestimated its value, why do they keep its price at the level – and why do agents waste their time going along with the delusion? I don’t.

212 Taconic Road

112 Taconic Road, that house in the holler, tried for $2.495 million in 2011, (commendably) dropped its price to $2.2 in 2012, dropped it further, to $1.995 in 2013, raised it to $2.295 in 2014, and, after that offer expired, unaccepted, have returned it to the market today at $2, million, basically the same price no one wanted it for in 2013. It’s fair to say, I think,that, if after four years, no one has stepped forward to buy your house at the $2.495 – $2 million range, you’ve placed it in the wrong price category.

150 Stanwich Rd

Likewise, 150 Stanwich Road, which I personally find appealing, has found no buyer after 3 years on the market, when it started off at $4.5 million and eventually dropped to $4.250, 2013. It raised its price to $4.5 million last year, expired unsold, so today it’s back, at that same $4.5 million. Huh?

Cos Cob pending

29 Butler Street

29 Butler Street, which started out at $1.375 back in 2012, dropped its price 141 days ago to $1.295 million and today reports a contingent contract. It’s probably mean to suggest that the listing’s description as “Close to Train and Schools” might more accurately have read, “(Very) close to train and I-95”.

Still, I like Butler Street.

It’s probably not true that all real estate agents overprice their own homes, but many do

5 Lindsay Drive

5 Lindsay Drive finally reports a sale contract. Purchased for $3.205 million in 2004, it was re-listed, unchanged, for $4.750 million in 2008, and has been for sale ever since. In 2013, after a succession of price reductions, the owner did some renovations and reduced the price again, to $3.750. This past February, that price was dropped to $3.495, and found a buyer – I’m guessing at right about back to that original 2004 purchase price.

Land sale (?) in the northwest corner.

80 Bedford Road

80 Bedford Road sold for $945,000. 2.5 acres, 2-bedroom home, last renovated in 1975. Was priced at a million, so someone had a realistic view of property values out here.

It’s still early, but I award him the Darwin Award of the day

I wonder if I’m in the paper?

Man taking selfie on train tracks struck and killed by train.

If you read this to a group of today’s college students, they wouldn’t see the joke

Solar powered, carbon-neutral  “fireside” chat

Not much of a joke, actually.

Victor Davis Hanson presents a speech on extremism by Franklin Delano Obama. Here’s a portion:

“Here let me just say that we must never fall into the trap of blaming the German people abroad, but especially our German community here at home. National Socialism by no means has anything to do with socialism. These terrorists are desperate for legitimacy, and all of us have a responsibility to refute the notion that groups like the SS somehow represent socialism because that is a falsehood that embraces the terrorist narrative. It is true that America and Germany have a complicated history, but there is no clash of civilizations. The notion that the America would be at war with Germany is an ugly lie.

“So make no mistake about it: National Socialism has nothing to do with Germany or the German people but is rather a violent extremist organization that has perverted the culture of Germany. It is an extremist ideology that thrives on the joblessness of Germany and can be best opposed by the international community going to the root of German unemployment and economic hard times. Let us not confuse Nazism with legitimate expressions of German nationalism. Stiff-arm saluting and jack boots are legitimate tenets of Germanism, and the German Brotherhood, for example, is a largely peaceful organization.

“So we Americans must not get on our own high horse. We, too, have bullied our neighbors and invaded them. We, too, have struggled with racism and anti-Semitism, slavery and Jim Crow. And our own culture has at times treated American citizens in the same callous way as the National Socialist do Germans. Before we castigate the Nazis, let us remember the Inquisition and the Crusades.

“In the face of Nazi challenge, we must stand united internationally and here at home — opposing workplace violence and man-caused disasters. We know that overseas contingency operations alone cannot solve the problem of Nazi aggression. Nor can we simply take out SS troopers who kill innocent civilians. We also have to confront the violent extremists — the propagandists working for Dr. Goebbels and Herr Himmler, recruiters and enablers — who may not directly engage in man-caused disasters themselves, but who radicalize, recruit and incite others to do so. One of the chief missions of our new aeronautics board will be to reach out to Germans to make them feel proud of German achievement. I want to remind Americans that Germans fostered the Renaissance, and helped create sophisticated navigation, mathematics, and medicine. This week, we will take an important step forward, as governments, civil society groups and community leaders from more than 60 nations will gather in Washington for a global summit on countering violent extremism. We hope that the efforts of those like Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Daladier and others will focus on empowering local communities, especially in Britain and France.

“Groups like the SS offer a twisted interpretation of German culture that is rejected by the overwhelming majority of the world’s German-speaking communities. The world must continue to lift up the voices of moderate German pastors and scholars who teach the true peaceful nature of German culture. We can echo the testimonies of former SS operatives and storm troopers who know how these terrorists betray Germany. We can help German entrepreneurs and youths work with the private sector to develop media tools to counter extremist Nazi narratives on radio and in newspapers.

“We know from experience that the best way to protect all people, especially young people, from falling into the grip of violent extremists like the SS and the National Socialists is the support of their family, friends, teachers and faith leaders throughout Germany and Western Europe in general.

“More broadly, groups like those headed by Herr Hitler and the National Socialists exploit the anger that festers when people in Germany feel that injustice and corruption leave them with no chance of improving their lives. The world has to offer today’s youth something better. Here I would remind ourselves of our past behavior in waging wars near the homeland of Germany. I opposed the Great War, and further opposed the Versailles Treaty that disturbed the region and stirred up violent passions and extremism.

“Governments like those in Europe that deny human rights play into the hands of extremists who claim that violence is the only way to achieve change. Efforts to counter such violent extremism will only succeed if citizens can address legitimate grievances through the democratic process and express themselves through strong civil societies. Those efforts must be matched by economic, educational and entrepreneurial development so people have hope for a life of dignity. It does no good to talk of wars against Germany or Italy, or to demonize particular political movements as if they are monolithic or in any way represent the feeling of the majority of Germans and Italians.

“Finally — with Nazism and fascism peddling the lie that the United States is at war with Germany and Italy — all of us have a role to play by upholding the pluralistic values that define us as Americans. This week we’ll be joined by people of many faiths, including German and Italian Americans who make extraordinary contributions to our country every day. It’s a reminder that America is successful because we welcome people of all faiths and backgrounds. Germany has always been a part of America, always a part of the American story. The future will not belong to those who slander German culture. I made clear that America is not — and never will be — at war with Germany.

 

I blame the CO2-spewing charcoal pits of 450 AD

Nigel? Nigel? Where have you gotten to?

English coast eroding. In many places in the US where educated citizens should know better (Nantucket comes to mind), this is all blamed on global warming. The Brits seem to have a better grasp of geological history.

The North Sea has been devouring the fields, roads and even villages of the East Yorkshire coast for hundreds of years and its inexorable advance has become a fact of life for seaside residents.

Now it is predicted that hundreds of homes will disappear in the area over the next century, as more properties fall victim to the rampant coastal erosion attacking the coastline.

More than 200 homes are predicted to slip over the cliff edges between Flamborough Head, near Bridlington, and Spurn Point, 45 miles further south, in the next 100 years.

The coastline has moved [inland] 12 miles in the last 10,000 years and currently retreats at an average of up to two metres a year.

This varies from location to location, though, and yearly losses of more than 18m in some places are not unknown.

Around 30 villages have completely disappeared into the North Sea since Roman times including places like Hyde, Withow and Cleeton which are now under the waves more than a mile off Skipsea.