If Nominated, I Will Not Run. . .
. . .if elected, I will not serve.
My officemate, the Obama supporter, sent me a link to a video today.
Veerrry cute. Give it a watch.
Category: Uncategorized
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Somebody had to make the conscious decision to apply for a loan that they couldn’t possibly afford. Somebody had to make the conscious decision that approving that loan was a Good Idea. Somebody had to make the conscious decision that buying up a whole bunch of these bad loans Made Perfect Sense.
They were wrong. Those conscious decisions they made were bad decisions, and Bad Decision Have Consequences.
Unless, of course, the Federal Government gets involved.
LawDog, “Meditations on The Bailout”
Aw, Damn
Aw, Damn
Death in the (extended) family. Tam’s cat Mittens passed today. When people ask me if I prefer cats or dogs, my answer is always “Yes.” Cats are lower-maintenance than dogs. You don’t have to walk them, and (if you’re lucky) you don’t have to clean up after ’em much either. But you have to provide service to cats. Dogs, on the other hand, worship you.
I’ve had both, and loved both. And losing them sucks.
Drop by Tam’s and leave a note of condolence, would you?
“These out-of-town internet dudes are another matter.”
In a follow-up to last Thursday’s “They mostly seem like ordinary folks” piece on the decision by California’s North Coast Journal to publish the names of CCW permit holders in Humboldt County (and the associated “They seem so normal!” story), we have a post at CalGuns (h/t to reader John):
I just received a call from HANK SIMS, the editor of the North Coast Journal (707) 826-2004. It came across my Caller ID, so it MUST be “public Information”
He wanted to verify that I had indeed submitted a “Letter to the Editor” online (not comments to the article, but an actual letter submission which I assume they have printed, or may print.)
The conversation started out pleasantly, but quickly turned into a heated debate. I told him that he should be able to glean from the 137+ NEGATIVE comments about posting the names of CCW holders, that it was the wrong thing to do. He refused to see it that way.
He told me that MY reading of the public information act, that the info is there for anyone who wants to go get it but purposefully publishing it from a data fishing expedition is wrong, is flawed. He saw NOTHING wrong with compiling the list of CCW holder names and publishing them on the front page. His defense? He didn’t publish their addresses or anything potentially damaging!
He said that the names alone give no usable information, but I told him that from Heidi Walters’ name ALONE, I have her PO Box mailing address, former residential addresses, work history, DOB, husband’s name, EX-husband’s name, the names of their current and former neighbors and a lot of other “public information” I have been able to gather by simply surfing the net. I haven’t even bothered to find out what car she drives, the names of her children if any and so forth. I have more important things to do, but I darned sure could find out a lot more with little effort.
RTWT.
So, needless to say, editor Hank Sims [(707) 826-2004], has gotten an ear- and an inbox-full of irate mail from gun owners. In fact, AAN, the “Association of Alternative Newsweeklies” has discovered our interest:
North Coast Journal Story on Weapons Permits Causes a Stir
The Humboldt County alt-weekly provoked an angry response last week with a cover story revealing the names of citizens who have permits to carry concealed weapons in the county. The cover illustration of a handgun was composed of names supplied by the county sheriff’s office of 641 individuals holding such a permit. The story has caused an “internet shitstorm,” editor Hank Sims tells AAN News, as evidenced by the comments on the story itself and various online forums and blogs. Sims notes that the reaction online has been much harsher than his face-to-face encounters. “A number of local people called or came into the office last week a little bit angry, wondering how we got their name or why we should be allowed to publish the list. They were all very cool, and I had some great conversations,” he says. “These out-of-town internet dudes are another matter.”
THR, Calguns, and this blog were linked in the blurb. Interestingly, the report was credited to “AAN News.” I guess whoever was responsible for actually typing the words didn’t want to risk an “internet shitstorm” themselves.
You know, it’s remarkable that the local response has been so low-key, seeing as how gun owners and especially CCW permit holders only appear to be ordinary folks. But journalists know that, deep down, they’re really bloodthirsty killers who need to be exposed! It’s only with the anonymity of the Internet (yeah, I’m anonymous as hell) that our true bloodthirstyness can be released!
In the form of harshly-worded missives!
I am, once again, reminded of the words of Dr. Michael S. Brown. We’re tired of the decades-long slow motion hate crime against guns and gun owners. This is another piece of evidence that we’re not taking it quietly anymore.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
From this House of Eratosthenes post, Party Like it’s 1999 wherein there is a link to Neal Boortz who has a clipping from the Sept. 30, 1999 edition of the New York Times (Paper of Record, y’know) that says:
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
Yes, boys and girls, Bubba gave us a real nice going-away present!
But that’s not the quote of the day. It’s just a setup. Continuing:
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
Y’see, this is how the MARKET WORKS. If you’re a higher risk then the lender had better see a higher return on his risk, or you’re not worth the risk.
But Fannie Mae (and Freddie Mac) removed the risk (so everyone thought). As Franklin Delano Raines famously said in House testimony, “These loans are almost riskless!”
And who doesn’t like free money?
But that wasn’t the QotD either. From the House of Eratosthenes piece, here is your QotD:
If the cause-and-effect is still a mystery to you . . . well then, you just might be a liberal democrat.
Following close on its heels is this from that same NYT piece – a bit of, shall we say, foreshadowing?
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.
“From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”
Please do read the whole piece. It’s chock-full of crunchy goodness! Nine years to the day. Who’dathunkit?
Obviously George Bush is at fault for not Nipping. This. In. The. BUD!
Mr. Wallison published American Enterprise Institute paper on the topic of “Regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac” in May of 2005 that you might also find interesting.
(*Ahem*) I hereby nominate Peter Wallison to the position of Secretary of the Treasury.
Trust Us: There’s Nothing Worng!
Trust Us: There’s Nothing Worng!
Instapundit had this YouTube video. Since I’ve posted other stuff on the topic, I thought I would post this one, too:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=344]
My favorite quote from the video by Don Manzullo, (R-IL):
Mr. Raines: $1.1 million bonus on a $526,000 salary. Jamie Gorelick: $779,000 bonus on a salary of $567,000. This is… What you state on page 11 is nothing less than staggering. “The 1998 earnings per share value turned out to be three dollars and twenty-three cents and nine mills ($3.239) – a result that Fannie Mae met the max, the EPS maximum payout goal right down to the penny.
“Fannie Mae understood the rules and simply chose not to follow them, if Fannie Mae had followed the, the practices, there wouldn’t have been a bonus that year.”
(6:20-7:08 in the video.)
Watch the whole thing.
(I love C-SPAN. AND YouTube!)
“That was freakin’ awesome”
“That was freakin’ awesome”
One bit of good news, for SpaceX the fourth time was the charm. They have successfully achieved orbit with their Falcon 1 booster toting a (non-)payload of 364 pounds of machined aluminum. CEO Elon Musk announced, “That was freakin’ awesome.” I imagine there was a bit of emotion behind that.
You’ve gotta love it. I want to see the video.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Paraphrased from this Mostly Cajun post:
Taxpayer: A title much of the Democrat Party’s core constituency fails to acheive
Because it’s never a good idea to vote against your own economic best interests, and who doesn’t like “free money”?
Here’s a couple of associated quotes:
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
—
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
Both of those by Alexis de Tocqueville.
The Subprime Crisis in 9:59
The Subprime Crisis in 9:59 10:59 10:51
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=344]
By all means, watch.
And you might want to read this, too.
UPDATE, 9/29: The original video was yanked. A 1 minute longer version has been substituted. (h/t to Strider.)
The $700 Billion Kidney Stone
The $700 Billion Kidney Stone
Bill Whittle publishes at NRO once again, with Pain. Who knew all we had to do was pay him?
Excellent as always. And, having suffered a kidney stone myself, I was unable to refrain from wincing (and laughing out loud) at his description. The only difference, the EMT was given permission to give me morphine in the ambulance but he couldn’t find a vein. Mine passed apparently much faster than Bill’s, but I think it was made on the same production line in the same Bulgarian factory.
(h/t to DJ for the pointer.)