I hate moving.

I know, I know, we all hate moving…

Threw out my shoulder haulin’ boxes, which I did because I hurt my knees sanding and spray painting rusty floorboard heat radiators.

Gonna order a pizza, pour a bourbon, fire up a mindless game on teh mac and relax.

All starts again tomorrow… ::sigh::

Dam Hippies!

Closed!

One last kick in the teeth, since the closing was delayed from my side, I get to pay $100/Day as a penalty.

FUN!

Progress today, only to run into yet another blocker…

I was able to “persuade” the fine gent at the lender that he should go ahead and “unstick” my loan post haste. I think he cried a bit, but I’m not sure. The mortgage broker has gotten verbal approval and the signed deal is fed-exing its way to his office.

All is good right?

Not so much.

Since the house we are buying was a foreclosure there is yet another hoop to hop through. Guess what? They can’t even start the process of this hoop jumping until the financial part is complete and the paper in the hands of the title company.

Best guess is “Late Thursday, possibly Friday”.

I still wonder how this sector got into so much trouble. THEY NEVER SEEM TO DO ANYTHING.

Feh

Michelle Obama says:

The problem with that kind of thinking is that we pass that on to our children. See, cause the thing I know as a mother is that our children are watching everything we do or say. Every explicit or implicit sign, they are watching us.

I agree wholeheartedly. That is exactly why I cannot vote for Senator Obama.

Those of us with kids of a certain age know this to be true. The first time your kid uses a turn of a phrase that you are fond of, the first time they use some body language that looks familiar, the first time that you overhear your words echoed from her to her friends, that my friends is when parents have that moment of clarity. I can tell you from personal experience that it is both inspiring and tremendously frightening. What I do and say has a great impact on my daughter, the good and the bad.

What have the Obama’s shown their daughters? A crazy preacher that spins conspiracy theories and hate for America, associations with shady characters (Resko), and befriending unrepentant terrorists. They have passed on the bitterness and hate that separates our people. They have shown them its OK to associate with terrorists as long as there are campaign donations involved. Its OK to take favors from “fixers” as long as nobody is looking.

They have also passed on the belief that you can throw your close friends and even you blood relatives under the bus as long as you can further your political ambitions.

Yes, Michelle, I totally agree with you, our kids look to us and learn from us. While I have no doubts that you think that your kids have gotten a positive worldview from you and your husband, I wouldn’t want that worldview to be passed on to my daughter.

I would much rather my daughter have a chance to grow up without racism, radicalism and hate.

Today was the scheduled date for the closing on our new house.

It didn’t happen.

Some pinhead in Texas can’t get some scrap of paper until some arcane information is provided. Worse, I can’t provide that information is has to come from the appraiser.

Now, I understand that the mortgage companies are having a hard time of late with all the foreclosures and all, but for the love of all that is right and good in the world why choose me to dick around?

If there was anyone in the entire world that a mortgage lender should lust after, its me. I have a credit rating that is off the charts, a 20% down payment that was in a money market account for a long time (growing until large enough for the down payment), and a history of making mortgage payments when other people would have just walked away.

What the hell?

The best information I have gotten is that because there have been so few home sales in the area, there isn’t a track record for home values. The appraiser thought my price was well below the value in the home, but some pinhead in Texas can’t let the deal go through until he sees some “comps”. Let’s not mention that the same house sold for quite a bit more than I am paying just 3 years ago. Even if the value has gone down, I’m still buying 20% up front. The risk is so low to them that it doesn’t even bear mentioning.

I guess this means this area is forever doomed to not have a sale. If I can’t buy a house, nobody can. Classic chicken and egg issue. That is just plain stupid. If the mortgage company doesn’t want to, you know, issue mortgages, why not just go out of business.

No wonder this sector of the economy is so fracked up.

Update: I can haz house? plsthx

ZOMG! DUDE!

yuk

E10: $3.49
E85: $3.04

Well… DUHHHHHHHH.

ZOMG! I actually agree with Thomas Friedman:

We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Of course, I go further and say that not only lower taxes on renewable sources but actively and aggressively fund the research into these technologies. He goes on to say:

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.

What he says for wind and solar goes for biofuels. Biofuels should be pushed much harder than wind and solar because of the dramatic effect abundant, cheap and sustainable biofuels would have on our National Security. Eliminate the demand for Saudi oil (via drilling, oil sands/shale or biofuels) and our future National Security is greatly enhanced.

Before all the “fuel for food” peeps go all ranty on me, I am not suggesting that corn is the best or even a good feedstock for biofuel. Not because of the indescribably foolish “effect on food prices” argument, but because it yields far less fuel per acre/year that just about any other feedstock. Personally I like algae.

Oil dependence is a serious National Security issue. It should be treated as such.

(HT: Insty)

In a poker game, when you don’t have enough chips to cover the bet you can push all the chips you have into the pot and declare “All In”. If you lose, you are out of the game, if you win you collect the pot and continue.

Yesterday Senator Obama went “All In”.

The good Doctor has forced Senator Obama to decide between his current run for the White House and his Political career. Effectively forcing him to go “All In” or fold and keep his Chicago power base intact. A tough choice to be sure. He decided to go for the brass ring.

If he goes on to win the White House, he will have ample time to win back his power base before 2012. If he loses the race, he will not be able to keep his Senate seat. Illinois is divided into 2 sections for Statewide offices, “Chicago” and “Downstate”. He actually won his seat because of some very strange events and bad Republican choices. The original Republican candidate was forced to drop out because of some embarrassing sexual shenanigans (with Jeri Ryan and his wife, he needed more? jeeeeeze) which put the Republican party in the position of finding a credible candidate at the last minute. They failed in spectacular fashion. Senator Obama just kissed off the majority of the “Chicago” voters and the “Downstate” voters were never in his camp (except when running against the nutjob Keyes).

I personally think he made the wrong decision, given that he will either lose the nomination to the “Superdelegates” or will lose the General because of the “bitterness” of the Hillary voters that the “Superdelegates” spurned. Even if I’m wrong about that, it took balls as big as church bells to go “All In”.

As for helping him in the current race, I don’t see it. Either he is a “typical politician” and was a member of TUCC only for the votes it would get him OR his campaign centerpiece (”Judgment to Lead”) is completely blown out of the water. Either he is a panderer of the most cynical order or he is as disingenuous as the Clintons.

In any case, its not over as a campaign issue. Not by a long shot.

[munches popcorn]

I want to ask the women out there a simple question.

Do you have some voodoo magic, radar system or some eerie SpideySense that tells you when your husband is about to head for the bathroom?

If not, my wife is a witch… A WITCH A WITCH may we burn her?

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeze

Somehow its the falut of the Jooooosss

It’s about dam time Mr. President

I was wondering what the hell happened to Dubya the fighter. We have not seen nearly enough of this side of the President.

Don’t give an inch to the drive by media.

(ht: Hot Air)

Dr. Wright implored, cajoled and badgered the questioners at the National Press Club event to see the whole sermon. He used the fact that people have not seen the whole sermon to shield himself from criticism, even in one case refusing to answer a question because he was sure that the questioner did not see the whole sermon.

I have seen the whole sermon.

Powerful stuff.

Powerfully wrong. Seeing “in context” the “God Damn America” soundbyte only adds to the loathsomeness of the good Doctor. The context that we all derived from the YouTube video was generous compared to seeing the whole thing.

Dr. Wright is a dynamic speaker and powerful personality. I was almost taken in, almost. I’m not so sure that, had I been “in the pews” that Sunday that I wouldn’t have been up out of my seat, clapping and crying “AMEN”. That is what I see as the very worst of the situation. Thousands flock to see the man and hear his race-centric and hateful sermons every week. They bring their children along which teaches them that its OK to hate as long as you hate the white man. It also hands down the litany of grievances, repeated over and over again. It spreads the crazy conspiracy theories to another generation.

It delays the reconciliation that he claimed to be all about.

Dr. Wright, stop digging, you are in deep enough.

If you have 40 Minutes to spare, watch and listen to this video series.

Dr. Wright is certainly a dynamic and charismatic speaker and this speech is certainly a very good one. I was interested and engaged all the way through.

I really have only 2 comments:

1) What a great message, delivered with great style and rhetorical power.

2) Imagine this speech given by a white person, using the “white speaking style”, given to the same audience.

I certainly agree with the Doctor’s point of “Different is not deficient”. It is the kind of idea that needs light and oxygen. It needs to be brought to the people, ALL the people, if we are ever going to close the racial divide in the country.

It’s too bad that most of what was said in this speech contradicts “Black Liberation Theology“. He did touch, lightly, on the connection of his theology to political action, but came short of exposing the Marxist nature of that philosophy. The parts about other religions, specifically the “white church” was quite non-representative of the theology he preaches when not in front of cable news cameras. His message of inclusion is 180 degrees from his past statements and statements of Dr. Cone.

The trouble with this idea coming from this massager is that the “bitter” and “clinging to religion” public (i.e. the rubes in the midwest) will not have the slightest inkling that Black Liberation Theology is so caustic and hateful to them and will embrace the man, not the message.

Read the comments at the link to see what I mean.

Update and bump: Dr. Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club is very interesting. His prepared remarks are a slightly watered-down version of his NAACP remarks, but that is not what is interesting. The Q&A portion shows a very different persona than his is pushing in the prepared portions of his speeches. Evasive, demeaning and combative are good adjectives.

No direct link yet, but CSPAN has terrible/nasty Real Player video. Skip to the last 20 minutes for the Q&A portion.

I must be higher on the list.

In case you have not been following the outrages that the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) have been committing across our northern border, you need to start paying attention. A good place to get up to speed is Ezra Levant’s blog and his inspiring YouTube videos.

Canada, as cute as they are (you’re a gooood little democracy, good), doesn’t have the equivalent of our First Amendment even though they have a tradition of free speech and a free press enshrined in their “Charter of Rights”, which as I understand it is somewhat less vigorous than our Bill of Rights.

The power and reach of the CHRC is jaw-droppingly astonishing. One of the biggest abuse of their powers recently was the use of a private citizen’s WiFi connection (without permission) to post racist remarks on a target website in order to stir up some evidence with which to prosecute. Yeah, that’s right, take a minute for that to sink in… [shutter]

The reports that the private citizen’s network was unsecured not have been shown to be false.

Hechme disputed an initial media report that her wireless Internet access was unsecured and therefore easily hacked. In fact, she said, it required an encryption key that could not have been guessed or casually cracked.

When she forgot the key, even she couldn’t access the connection, she said.

“It was so secure to the point I couldn’t get into it (so) I’m not sure how they got into it. It’s very bizarre.”

It’s bad enough to fire up your wireless card and casually look for an unsecured network to leech bandwidth and identity, egregious but not white hard standing on end scary. The report that the CHRC has the means to hack a secured network and the lack of morals to use that hacked system to further their personal vendettas is something that puts me at a factor 5 freak-out.

Be alert Americans! This is not too far away for us. Support our Canadian friends.

Created by OnePlusYou

Oh man, really? DOH…

I was just floored by the mail today. I will explain in a moment.

I now have 2 mortgages, one on the house we are in the process of buying and moving into and the house I left behind when my last job didn’t work out. The newer mortgage is a 15 year fixed. We went fixed and conventional just because of the current market and fears of becoming just another leech on the US Treasury via a bailout.

The old house, which we still own because the market sucks rocks, has an adjustable rate mortgage. We went that way for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that we were cash strapped and we could get an ARM with a lower down payment and much lower monthly payments. At least to start.

Because we had that house/mortgage, we rented a house in our new location. We figured we should hold off buying until we could afford to buy a fixer-upper. We paid our rent and the old mortgage all this time without complaint. We borrowed the money, we pay it back. A totally American attitude, at least in my mind. We will continue paying the old mortgage until we can sell the house, or more likely, until it is paid in full.

Responsibility. Honesty. Honor.

We could have gone ahead and bought a house when we moved. We could have taken a crazy “creative” mortgage but we decided to wait until our finances were back in order. That just happened (almost 3 years later).

Back to today’s mail…

The adjustment statement for the old mortgage just arrived. I experienced a moment of panic as I started to open the envelope, my heart raced and head hurt as I unfolded the letter with all the confusing numbers on it. I quickly searched for the “bottom line” number, worried that I just bit off way more than I could chew by buying the new house.

Turns out that my adjustable rate mortgage is not of the “crazy/stupid” variety. There are caps on how far the rate can move, both up and down. The rate cap came into play this year, but not the cap you’re thinking… The rate dropped so much the lower cap was activated.

That’s right my monthly payment went DOWN. Actually it went down 10% from last year’s payment. It would have been EVEN LOWER if the low end cap didn’t exist. Of course, I am happy those caps are there. Then again, it should not have come as a surprise that we had a “sane” mortgage, its not in my character to take crazy risks with my family’s future.

OK, what does this mean?

I was mildly sympathetic to the people that are getting caught up in the “mortgage crisis” and losing their homes. Not enough sympathy for me to support a Government bailout, but enough to support some non-direct-money actions like a restructuring initiative, or loans to those that have good credit otherwise.

This is no longer my opinion.

In order to be smacked upside the head by your ARM you would need to have no caps, which can’t be the case as my ARM went down, or your ARM had to have some sort of crazy/stupid provision like a low fixed rate for 3 to 5 years then a ridiculous reset rate after that. Maybe a huge balloon payment too.

I have no sympathy for people that either didn’t care about the nuttiness of these kinds of loans or actively sought them out because of investment priorities. I also have no sympathy for 110% borrowers, speculators or “house flippers”. If you can’t get a mortgage that is sane, maybe the lenders are telling you something.

Of course, I have negative sympathy for lenders that wrote these kinds of loans.

I should have known, the Market is the best regulator of risk. Live on the bleeding edge, sometimes you get cut, deal.

Go to AngryRenter.com and sign the petition.

NO BAILOUTS!

I haven’t looked at Cousin Oliver’s cavalcade of stupid (as per Ace-o-Spades policy, no link. It’s http://www.oliverwillis.com if you must) for quite a while, so I forced the browser to go there against its better judgement. To answer the question “is Ollie still saving his limited brainpower for marriage?” The answer: “oh my yes”.

I just have to show you The 10 things you need to know about John McCain.

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.

Senator McCain did indeed oppose the MLK holday 20+ years ago. On racist grounds? not so much. The argument was that there were already too many paid holidays. Not a great argument in 2008, maybe better in 1987 I don’t know. He has since changed his position and wholeheartedly embraces the holiday. What was Senator Obama doing in 1987? Joining Reverend Wright’s church. Maybe this isn’t such a good point Ollie…

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”

Umm.. good point Ollie, sounds like a winner to me.

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.

If Senator McCain, of all people, cannot be trusted to make good and moral decisions regarding torture then nobody in the world can. Nice of Ollie to point out yet another good point for the Senator. Very sporting.

4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”

PERFECT!

5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.

Could he mean the SCHIP bill for poor folks making under 100k? Do you really want to remind the folks of that Ollie?

6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.

Ollie is the ever-happy class warrior. Let’s not mention Senator Obama’s “fantastic” year.

What advice would you give those facing foreclosure? “Real” people get 2nd jobs and don’t take vacations when they are in financial trouble. I for one will not be going to DisneyLand this year because of the house I just bought. I suppose Ollie would suggest that the Government should send me some money for that trip because “its only fair”.

7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”

Who said this? I wonder if by “One Republican senator” he means “The MSM”.

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.

This from someone who supports Senator “I don’t take money from Big Oil”.

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.”

Reverend Wright. Nuff said.

And yes, Ollie can’t count either because it ends right there.

Honestly, if you call him a schmuck, it would be an insult to schmucks everywhere.

Why does everything have fucking PESTO in it?

I hate pesto, I really hate pesto. The only thing I hate more than pesto is when I find pesto in places it has no place being. YUK!

I foolishly thought I could buy a turkey club wrap from a local deli without the dreaded pesto coming into play, but as you might have guessed I was wrong.

A TURKEY CLUB SHOULD NOT INCLUDE PESTO! ZERO, NADA, ZILCH!

I’m going to be awfully hungry this afternoon.

grrrrrrrrrr.

You have to be kidding Mr. Vartabedian, right?

I mean it has to be a joke to write something a mind-numbingly stupid as this: John McCain gets tax-free disability pension

PLEEEEEEESE tell me you are joking… Un-fracin’-believable.

Ed Morrissey handles the “substance” better than I can, especially with my jaw firmly on the floor.

Just how clean is Senator McCain?

Ralphie, a bit of advice from your ol pal Sinner. If the best you can do is denigrate a real-life victim of the Vietnam war for taking his Navy pension, claiming the allowed by law tax treatment and wonder aloud that he may be too disabled to be CIC, you are going to have a very very long election season. That is if you are trying to run down the good Senator from Arizona. Then again, why would you write this if you weren’t serving your partisan masters?

We have a word for “reporters” like Ralphie, that word is: HACK

Why does Elmer Fudd keep going out to hunt every season?

It never seems to end well for him.

The next time you hear some supporter of Senator Clinton complain about sexism, remember this statement from the Senator herself.

I for one would rather that Senator Clinton would win the nomination. [gasp] If she were to beat Senator McCain, it would be bad but not the disaster that is “President Obama.”