The Market is an Idiot

Took a walk through my neighborhood here in Henderson, Nevada -- one of the suburbs of all-suburban Las Vegas. Every third house is either for rent or up for sale, it seems.

$145,000, $400,000, $139,000. This is what "The Market" decreed my house to have been worth within the span of 10 years. Imagine I had moved to Nevada in 2004 instead of 1998. This would have translated into a mortgage of $400,000. Pay homage to Mr. Market for the rest of my life. Clearly this entity called "The Market" should be commissioned to the loony house.

Of course, as a good capitalist I would have done enough "research" to foresee the vagaries of Mr. Market. But I have no interest in learning about this idiot. Let the university, the county, the state, or even the federal government provide my housing at reasonable cost. I will be glad to buy from them, but keep "The Market" out of it.

Family Values R Us

Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy typically comes from a desire to mask actual motives or feelings, or from a person's inability to conform to standards they espouse.
(Wikipedia)
Here another addition to the Republican Hall of Hypocrisy:

Marshall Clement Sanford Jr., known as Mark Sanford (born May 28, 1960) is the Governor of South Carolina.

Other recent inductees:

John Eric Ensign (born March 25, 1958) is the junior United States Senator from Nevada.

James Arthur "Jim" Gibbons (born December 16, 1944) is the 28th and current governor of the U.S. state of Nevada.

Larry Edwin Craig (born July 20, 1945) is a former Republican politician from
the U.S. state of Idaho.

David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Louisiana.

Postscript: The state of the Republican party has been noticed by others. Reading reading: Republican Gomorrah: Inside the movement that shattered the party.

Asbestos for the Ear

It is peaceful in Central Pennsylvania, paradise of serene meadows ... or so it seems. Except, of course, that all those Home Depot gadgets need to be put to use. Noisy use. Trimming, moving, power cleaning, and back to mowing. Some day people will recognize all this as noise pollution, but for now it just like with asbestos, no harm done. Suburban life breeds busybodies.

Eulogies for Michael Jackson McNamara

Today Robert McNamara died. McNamara was a pivotal figure in recent American history. Indeed, there are many parallels between the Iraq and Vietnam troubles.

The news of his death was hardly noticed in America as it was drown out by the deafening hoopla surrounding Michael Jackson death a few days earlier.

Customers at Circuit City, January 17, 2009