An unusual story in the Wall St. Journal

It actually criticizes President Obama, and points out how irritated and unhappy the people are who chose to live within their means, who met all the requirements for downpayment and percent of income for housing costs.

What do you expect from the government?" said David Newton, 46 years old, proprietor of DJN Management LLC, which owns 232 rental apartments in the Atlanta area. "The government isn't out there to help people who obey the law and follow the rules."

Mr. Obama "told everybody, 'I'm going to spread wealth around,' and that's what he's going to do," Mr. Newton said. Story by Timiraos and Phillips here.

Yes, it's a quote, but at least it's not from an ACORN "community organizer" who was first taking money from the government to put people into mortgages they couldn't afford, then taking money from the government to run foreclosure workshops, and now is taking money to organize foreclosure protests.

Since 1986, we have helped 45,000 families successfully negotiate the homebuying process and achieve the American dream of homeownership for the first time." ACORN website

"ACORN Housing provides one-on-one mortgage loan counseling, first-time homebuyer classes, and helps clients obtain affordable mortgages through our unique lending partnerships." ACORN Florida website

"In Providence, Rhode Island, ACORN will provide a foreclosure workshop to assist homeowners who need to renegotiate their mortgage loans. ACORN is a nonprofit group that advocates for initiatives that benefit moderate- and low-income people." Bankruptcy website

"ACORN plans local action to stem North West Indiana mortgage foreclosures." NWI website.

If you need a job, ACORN is hiring. I'm guessing the protestors in front of homes, banks, and mortgage companies are paid.

My Friend ERMA

United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund was authorized by President Obama after one week in office to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. Federal Register, January 27, 2009"

Big Gay Al wonders how he missed it on the national news. Yeah, I wonder. Obviously, someone had that ready for his desk before he took his hand off the Bible.

So I went over to the ERMA website to see what else was going on, and why this was such a rush job.

Of the $20.3 million in new ERMA funds, $13.5 million will go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), $6 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and $800,000 to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). . .

Today’s [January 30] contribution to UNRWA augments the $85 million the United States contributed in December 2008 toward UNRWA’s 2009 appeals. Of that amount, $25 million supported UNRWA emergency operations in West Bank and Gaza. The remaining $60 million supported UNRWA’s services for 4.6 million Palestinian refugees in the region, including Gaza. . .

Furthermore, today’s contribution to ICRC complements the $9.7 million the United States provided earlier this month for ICRC’s activities for victims of conflict in the Middle East, with particular attention to its critical programs in Gaza. . . In addition to our contributions to UNRWA, ICRC, and OCHO, to date, USAID has provided more than $3.7 million for emergency assistance to Gaza."

And does the US give Israel a lot. Oh yes. Billions. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. However, when I tried to find a reliable source, all I found was hate Israel pro-Palestine sites (well, the first 20 or so). As with most problems in the middle east, it depends on your politics. Maybe the press didn't mention it because Bush gave more in December and they didn't want Obama to look like a piker?

The beautiful children of Haiti

Please see the previous blog entry first so you understand why we have these photos. It's hard to hold the camera when they all want to see the picture.



Lunch time! There are many shifts, and the food is on the table before the children enter.





Girl's choir from 2007 trip

Scenes from Haiti 2009

On Monday afternoon my husband returned from a short term mission trip in Ouanaminthe Haiti. This was his third year to go, and he hopes to go again next year. He loves the people there. By our standards, they don't have much, but they are so joyful in their faith, and the students he works with are just delightful.
The 2009 team with Dave and Pam Mann (UALC ministers who serve there)

The container with the construction materials didn't arrive until Thursday, but God always has a Plan B, so the team busied themselves painting a room cream with salmon pillars.

Two of the team members have medical equipment backgrounds and were able to help calibrate equipment in the clinic which is now completely staffed with Haitians. The first few years of the clinic it was staffed with rotating teams from the USA.

After he was finished with his construction responsibilities, my husband taught a 13th grade class in model building. These are models of the buildings he has designed for the vocational school which will be built next to the academic buildings.

Today's new word is JAILBREAKING

I don't have an iPhone, but do have an iTouch, which I haven't yet figured out. Today I saw the following: "For quite possibly the first time ever, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has publicly stated that it believes that jailbreaking an iPhone is against the law -- not against its end-user agreement for iPhone use with Apple's services like iTunes, its App Store, or MobileMe -- but against the law. More specifically, Apple contends that jailbreaking an iPhone infringes on its copyright. That's right, copyright."

Jailbreaking, then, is opening up your iPhone's file system so it can be accessed from your computer.

About.com says, "Jailbreaking your iPhone means freeing it from the limitations imposed on it by AT&T and Apple. You install a software application on your computer, and then transfer it to your iPhone, where it "breaks open" the iPhone’s file system to allow you to modify it. Once you do it, you're on your own. You may have voided your warranty, so you can't rely on AT&T or Apple to fix any problems you encounter."

Don't wear this to an awards event

Especially not if you are. . . rather large and going to be in every photo from the top seller award to the janitors' cleaniness prize. This photo is from yesterday's WSJ fashion article, but what I saw in a non-profit newsletter was a woman exec in a very big black and white patterned dress with jacket in a similar shiny fabric and design. And I won't provide a link. I don't think she realized when she took it out of her closet that morning for the event, that seeing the dress about 10 times in a single issue of the company newsletter would have such a stunning, memorable affect. At least I'll never forget it. The other female CEO wore a simple muted lavender suit, so she looked much more business-like standing next to the men who were all in dark suits, or even the janitors who also looked more professional than the black and white event of the day. It's not that large women have to always dress conservatively or in black, but neither should they be a moving billboard.

Go Green to Get the Green

Here's the February issue of the International Masonry Institute blog--I see the first article is about terrazzo floors, and its advantage for "green" building. I was roller skating at the White Pines on terrazzo floors 60 years ago. Who knew we were so ahead of the times back then.



Until the recent building meltdown caused by our inept government regulations, a mason probably made more than a teacher or professor. The BLS describes the job here. But, you'd have to pay through the nose and join the union. "Only about 2 percent of cement masons, concrete finishers, segmental pavers, and terrazzo workers were self-employed, a smaller proportion than in other building trades. Most self-employed masons specialized in small jobs, such as driveways, sidewalks, and patios."

Update: I was wrong about the salary. See here for terrazzo floor installers. The median annual is about the same as school teachers, and the hourly is much lower.

Global warming and the economy

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that October in the US was marked by 63 record snowfalls and 115 lowest-ever temperatures. Over the past few years, similar signs of colder than usual weather have been recorded all over the world, causing many people to question the still fashionable, but now long outdated, global warming alarmism. Yet individual weather events or spells, whether warmings or coolings, tell us nothing necessarily about true climate change. . .

Introduction of a carbon dioxide tax to prevent (imaginary) warming, euphemistically disguised as an emissions trading scheme, is a politician's, ticket clipper's and mafia chief's dream. . ." Australian, Jan. 20, 2009

"The IPCC’s assertion that a dangerous human influence is being exerted on climate change rested in 2001 on three main arguments. These were (i) that the thermometer-based ground-temperature record shows unprecedented warming; (ii) the claim, after the Mann et al. (1998) ‘hockey stick’model of climate change, that late 20th century temperatures rose to an unnatural level and at an unnatural rate; and (iii) the implication, based on a radiative-balance model of atmospheric processes, that deterministic computer models can predict climate 50 or 100 years ahead.

Regarding (i), the ground temperature curve now shows no statistically significant warming since 1995, and cooling since 2002. Regarding (ii), the work of Mann et al. has been shown to be deeply statistically flawed (McIntyre and McKitrick 2003). Which leaves GCM computer models as the sole remaining argument for dangerous human-caused warming. ‘How are they travelling’, you ask? ‘Not at all well’ is the answer. . ." from "Knock, Knock: Where is the Evidence for Dangerous Human-Caused Global Warming?" by Robert M. Carter, ECONOMIC ANALYSIS & POLICY, VOL. 38 NO. 2, SEPTEMBER 2008 (Available on-line as PDF, 26 pages)

Some in government have common sense

Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindahl. They are our hope for the future. Hope that there are elected officials who are NOT socialists and marxists. Shame on the US voter for not even putting up a fight before the takeover. Palin to Greta Van Susteren:

voiced her opposition to the Obama stimulus bill because Congress hadn’t had time to fully digest it.

“I wish he would veto it and send it back until our lawmakers can read it and know what’s in it. I think I speak for a lot of Alaskans who say also understanding that the impacts on individual states that this stimulus package has, they are unknown impacts,” Palin said. “So until our guy and our gals in Congress can read it and understand what the impacts are, I don’t want to see it signed.”

The former Republican candidate for vice-president added, “I would call for a veto, absolutely, and let’s do this right, understanding that there is going to be some kind of stimulus package. There is going to be some kind of attempts for economic recovery. I say construction projects that put people to work, that fits the bill, but these big huge expanded social programs where we are adding people to the rolls, and then the economic stimulus package dollars from the feds are going to dry up at some point. States then are going to be beholden to these programs.

“We will have to pay for them. That’s not right, that’s not fair. We just want to make sure that whatever is it is that is passed makes sense for the states, for the residents of our individual states.”

Although I think both governors will be pressured to accept the oppressive measures of this largest ever tax increase and deficit (each household in their state will also be slapped with the $10,000 price tag), it's nice to know someone up there still believes in reading the legislation.

Unfortunately, in order to read Greta's interview, you'll have to scroll through the Bristol and Trig stories, which seem to be the level at which you can ease most voters into this important news. Sorry--it's the best I can find. There may be 5 generations of family to help with the new baby, but that's not the message the teens get when Bristol's situation is glamorized. Shame on Granny Sarah for allowing this.

More of what got us to our financial meltdown in housing

Have you noticed that the GSEs Fannie and Freddie are front and center of the stimulus?

"Before Wall Street screamed bloody murder at the opening of 2008, President Bush was resisting pressure to lift the financial limit on the mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase and securitize. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the GSEs’ wimpy watchdog, also objected to lifting the limit and continues to do so post stimulus agreement. The present GSE limit is $417,000. The stimulus would snap the cap to $625,500, and to $729,750 in extra pricey housing markets. Allowing Fannie and Freddie to purchase and securitize jumbo mortgages, the oversize loans MBS investors now shun as too risky. Link

How we got here--a quick review



HT Taxmanblog

Michael Crichton on religion

Remarks at the Commonwealth Club, September 15, 2003:

I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it is said we live in a secular society in which many people---the best people, the most enlightened people---do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.
More here.

And that's why, he says, you can't talk anyone out of hard core environmentalism, of belief in global warming, because those are issues of faith. No one invested emotionally and financially in the faith wants the facts.

So I can tell you some facts. I know you haven't read any of what I am about to tell you in the newspaper, because newspapers literally don't report them.

I can tell you that DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn't carcinogenic and banned it anyway. I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn't give a damn.

I can tell you that second hand smoke is not a health hazard to anyone and never was, and the EPA has always known it. I can tell you that the evidence for global warming is far weaker than its proponents would ever admit. I can tell you the percentage the US land area that is taken by urbanization, including cities and roads, is 5%.

I can tell you that the Sahara desert is shrinking, and the total ice of Antarctica is increasing. I can tell you that a blue-ribbon panel in Science magazine concluded that there is no known technology that will enable us to halt the rise of carbon dioxide in the 21st century. Not wind, not solar, not even nuclear. The panel concluded a totally new technology-like nuclear fusion-was necessary, otherwise nothing could be done and in the meantime all efforts would be a waste of time. They said that when the UN IPCC reports stated alternative technologies existed that could control greenhouse gases, the UN was wrong.

Obama and his bevy of tax evading advisors probably don't read Michael Crichton.

Whether you love him or hate him

This will make you smile.

Temperature to drop tonight

If you live in Illinois, I understand you're passing along some cold temperatures to Ohio. Thanks a bunch. Oh, this global warming. Last year the average daily temperature here in central Ohio in February was 26.2. This year it's 17.6. One year doesn't make a trend, but it's actually been getting cooler for about a decade. I need to start tracking these AGW sites--you can get all you want about the other side, the political side, just by watching the main stream media, or reading any newsy/pop source like Time, Newsweek, or Nature. It's very hard to get a research grant or get published if you have a different viewpoint.

One piece of the economy that is going great guns is "continuing education." For my husband, that means taking courses in "green" in order to stay licensed--he had a 12 hour seminar yesterday (and we think he got food poisoning as a side benefit). But architects aren't the only ones by any means. Lawyers, pharmacists, medical trades, automotive, hospitality industry, leisure industry, janitorial and cleaning trades, school teachers, building trades--they all have license requirements, and they are all having "green" pushed down their throats. Yes, it's been a real boon for the companies that offer these courses. Whether the people teaching the courses believe it, I don't know, but they couldn't make any money if they publicly denied it.

Global warming hoax news

Global Warming Hoax

Master Resource

National Center for Policy Analysis

Icecap

There never has been a scientific consensus that human activities are causing catastrophic global warming. Indeed, hardly a day goes by when some eminent scientist comes “out of the closet” so to speak and publicly rejects either the link between human actions and the recent warming trend or the idea that the global warming will result in horrific environmental or human harm. Indeed, the U.S. Senate has a minority report listing more the 650 international scientists who disagree with the all or part of the so-called consensus. Many of the scientists on this list are current or former members of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) who have broken with the IPCC over its findings or, at least, how it is presenting them. H. Sterling Burnett

Denver, CO (Feb. 18, 2009)—A new study says that a climate action plan promoted by several Western governors could prolong the economic recession, weaken already overburdened Western power grids and will deliver a temperature “benefit” of only one ten-thousandth of a degree Celsius even after a century of operation. The study, commissioned by the Western Business Roundtable, found that the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade plan could “chase away tens of billions of dollars in high technology investment from the West to other regions” and would “further stress the West’s already strained electricity grid, increasing the threat of potentially catastrophic power outages.” ICECAP

We have one sensible weatherman in Columbus, Jim Ganahl.

The Can’t Fail Presidential Plan

“Suppose, as seems a distinct possibility, that the sloppily crafted, spend-to-oblivion stimulus package does precious little near-term good while causing eventual runaway inflation, a teetering dollar, huge tax increases and overall diminution of American prosperity and power. Will Barack Obama pay a political price?

Maybe not. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal fiscal policies did not end the Depression and may have done more harm than good, but he was perceived as bold and caring, a dynamic leader making the best of the situation while here and there easing pain.” Link

More money for government buildings

The government gets to the green pork trough first. According to Architectural Digest $130 billion of the bill is earmarked for construction-related spending. Glancing through the list, it looks like you'll need to live near DC, Maryland or Virginia to get any of this. I don't think we have any GSA or NIH buildings around here.

BUILDINGS: $13.4 billion
General Services Administration (GSA), energy-efficiency upgrades for federal buildings: $4.5 billion
Facilities on federal and tribal lands: $3 billion
National Institutes of Health, facilities upgrades/construction: $1.5 billion
National Science Foundation, research equipment and facilities upgrades/construction: $600 million
Department of Homeland Security, new headquarters: $450 million
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, procurement, acquisition, and facilities construction: $430 million
Department of Homeland Security, ports of entry: $420 million
National Institute of Standards and Technology, facilities construction: $360 million
Department of Agriculture, facilities: $330 million
Border stations and ports of entry: $300 million
U.S. Courthouses and other GSA buildings: $300 million
Fire stations: $210 million
State Department, Capital Investment Fund: $90 million
Smithsonian facilities: $25 million

HOUSING/HUD: $9.6 billion
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Public Housing Capital Fund: $4 billion
HUD, redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes: $2 billion
HUD, Community Development Block Grants: $1 billion
HUD, energy retrofits, "green" projects in HUD-assisted housing projects: $250 million

DEFENSE/VETERANS: $7.8 billion
Veterans Affairs, medical facilities upgrades/construction: $1.25 billion
Department of Defense (DOD), facilities upgrades/construction: $4.2 billion
DOD, military “quality of life’ projects, such as housing and child-care centers: $2.3 billion

Weren't you always told to read the fine print before you bought something on credit? When the editors put this list together, no one had yet read the bill--not even the people who voted on it. Not even the President read it. It's sort of a guess.

Can you spot the typo?

This one was a headline in OSU Today

Collaboration with Microsoft Widows Live

Oregon Democrats propose 1,900% tax increase on beer

Like the cigarette taxes that hurt the poor the most to pay for the medical care of the middle class, the state run lotteries that hit the low income the hardest that are supposed to help reduce dependency on real estate to fund schools, the reasoning here is that it will save in medical costs. For whom? I'm guessing it hurts the low income beer drinker the most. I've known a lot of alcoholics, and only one was a beer-alcoholic. I've never even tasted beer. Smells like rotten grain to me. More than likely, it will be one more case of Democrats shutting down an industry that employs people so they can create more dependency on the government with unemployment, universal health care, and the government owning and operating the beer plants. Or, if you follow the lobbyist money, you might even find some very large beer companies passing out some change to Oregon's legislators so they can put the competition out of business.

Jamie Floyd, owner of Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene, said Ninkasi paid $19,000 in taxes last year, and the increase would raise its taxes to $370,000. The tax increase brewers would assume would inevitably be passed on to their distributors, retailers and consumers, he said.

The economic recession already affects Taylor's, especially because its customer base is on a fixed income, Walker said, so the tax increase will only hurt business further.

"It can't be a positive thing for the economy," Walker said. "College kids are still going to do what they do, but (business) is down a little bit; it's not as busy as it was six months or a year ago." Daily Emerald

The President of Everything

Wouldn't it be surprising if even the press were to catch on this early in his presidency to where Obama is taking us?

"This is a presidency on steroids." That's not an assessment from a libertarian shocked by President Barack Obama's first month in office. That is the first sentence of Eugene Robinson's latest column, which goes on to list many of the ways that the Obama Administration is "managing the big chunks of the private-sector economy that are now more accurately described as semi-private at best.... He may have to become an auto executive, a banker, mortgage broker and who knows what else before this crisis is done." Who knows what else, indeed. Link to Morning Bell.

Meanwhile, a viral e-mail with a few inaccuracies but which gets it pretty close about all the tax and ethics problems which have turned up in just the first 3 weeks. Don’t know where it started but it’s been going around the internet for about a week and most points were correct, although it left out the Rezko-Blago-Burris-Obama connection--maybe was too early:

Secretary of State Clinton was bought off with her appointment and that's under a cloud due to her husband's gifts both in and out of office and laws passed while she was a Senator. Making available a donor list apparently made all the questions go away.

Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner is a tax cheat. Then when he talks, the brightest guy on the planet, next to the President, makes no sense at all.

Attorney General Eric Holder's law firm represents terrorists imprisoned in Gitmo. I've watched enough TV to know that's not right. And didn't he represent Marc Rich? If he wasn't ethical enough to be an advisor during the campaign, how can he be AG?

CIA boss Leon Panetta has zero experience. Where is the donor list for his "institute." He has no other visible means of support.

The Secretary of HHS nominee Tom Daschle withdrew under charges of cheating on his taxes. Also how many millions did he make his first two years after he left the Senate? Sort of a double standard Mr. Squeaky Clean President.

Nancy Killefer withdrew from consideration as deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget

Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis has tax problems, and she was also a pro-union lobbyist, something Obama said he didn't want in his gang cabinet.

Bill Richardson was first choice to be Commerce secretary, but the New Mexico governor withdrew amid a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors. When do we see Panetta's donors list?

Then Commerce secretary nominee Judd Gregg, a Republican, withdraws when he sees Obama’s plan for that department, particularly his interference in the Census.

Matthew Nugen, a top Obama campaign aide is joining Ogilvy Government Relations as a lobbyist. Like Daschle's, the position is technically one of "strategist." If it quacks like a duck. . .

David Plouffe, the campaign manager calling for for transparency and openness during the campaign prevented reporters from attending a speech at the National Press Club!

Rezko-Blago-Burris-Obama connection getting stronger.

And although not quite in the same category, Mr. draw down, code Pink, can't we all get along, is ordering 17,000 more troops for Afghanistan.

Update Feb. 17 from Dick Morris' column: Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) - and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate. She is the wife of Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg who has received over half a million in polling contracts from the Democrats. Emmanuel is a millionaire who shouldn't need free rent.

This is a stunning list for only three four weeks in office. Where was our main stream press, our free press that hounded Bush for 8 years, finding all sorts of minuscule crimes, but that can't locate these tax cheats who now steal our taxes?

Let's ruin long term care

We've had a "long term care" policy for over 10 years. It isn't cheap, but even a month in a nursing home costs more than a year's cost for the policy. It's like any insurance--we've never gotten anything out of our auto insurance either--thank goodness--but have been buying it for almost 50 years. But Obama-Biden licking their chops over the money that's in it already? Oh no! Link.

Today's new word is MELIORIST

The book review in today's WSJ is of "Soul of a People" by David A. Taylor. The reviewer writes: "Fortunately, the Communists in the Federal Writers' Project [FDR's WPA] were in their Popular Front phase and all for the MELIORIST New Deal. . . " Meliorist comes from the Latin word melior meaning "better." Meliorism is the belief or doctrine that the world tends to become better and better. Have you seen any evidense of this? Sort of social Darwinism. The USSR, Communist China and North Korea probably collectively killed 100 million of their own citizens. Better indeed!