My Simple World

The home loan modification mess

2010-11-17T18:55:00.001-08:00

LA Times

By Doyle McManus

November 18, 2010

Last year, Noel Sandoval, an accountant in San Mateo, Calif., who is disabled from epilepsy, asked Bank of America to ease the terms of his $369,000 mortgage under a federal program designed to help homeowners in distress. After almost 12 months of back and forth, the bank told him no. Its explanation: The mortgage was owned by an investor who wouldn't permit any modifications.

It turned out, though, that the bank wasn't telling the truth — something Sandoval's legal services lawyer discovered only after she finally obtained a copy of the mortgage servicing agreement. There in black and white was a list of conditions under which loan modifications were possible.

"That is an error on our part," Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans, acknowledged Tuesday in testimony before the U.S. Senate. "We are not perfect."

One of the seeming mysteries of the mortgage foreclosure crisis has been the enormous obstacles distressed homeowners encounter when they ask for modification of their mortgage terms — even in cases in which modifying a loan would appear to leave the bank better off than foreclosure.

There's a Treasury Department program that's supposed to make modification easier, but it has fallen short of expectations. Officials hoped the Home Affordability Modification Program would help at least 3 million homeowners, but it has produced only about half a million permanent loan modifications so far.

Homeowners struggling to keep their homes have reported every conceivable nightmare: lost documents and delayed responses, foreclosure proceedings that chug ahead even after loan modifications have been promised, "robo-signed" affidavits — and, in Florida, a house that was seized and sold in foreclosure even though the homeowner had no mortgage at all.

In response to the horror stories, banks and other mortgage servicers have offered all the predictable responses. They say they have been overwhelmed by the wave of mortgage defaults the Great Recession unleashed; they simply weren't prepared to deal with this many requests for modification. In many cases, they note, a mortgage can't be saved from foreclosure — when borrowers' incomes have fallen so low that they can't qualify for any terms, for example. And, of course, there's the catchall excuse of human error.

All of these things are true in many cases. But none of that explains a situation like Sandoval's. Bank of America not only told him wrongly that his loan couldn't be modified; it even sent his lawyer an excerpt from the servicing agreement, from which someone at the bank had carefully cut out the lines that showed when modifications were allowed.

"I apologize for that error," Desoer said grimly at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee.

Bank of America has earned a reputation among lawyers and housing advocates as among the hardest to deal with of the nation's big mortgage servicers. Customers complain that getting answers from the company is difficult; housing advocates say the bank often seems reluctant to negotiate seriously over requests to modify loans.

BofA says it has resolved to do better. Desoer told the senators that the bank has launched a series of reforms, including a commitment to give every homeowner "a fair opportunity" at loan modification and a new "case officer" system so customers need no longer explain their case to a different bank officer on every call. (The bank did not explain why it took a crisis to prompt such a simple innovation.) But even these reforms won't be enough, experts on mortgage law say. They say there's an underlying flaw in our system of bundled, resold mortgages: The companies that service mortgages can sometimes make more money from foreclosure than from modification. "In many cases … foreclosure is either less costly or more profitable," said Adam J. Levitin, a professor at Georgetown Law School.

A mortgage servicing company makes money by charging fees based on the principal amount of the loan; reducing the principal reduces the servicer's income. Foreclosure guarantees reimbursement of a servicer's fees and costs; modification can make reimbursement harder. And when a loan is in default and heading toward foreclosure, a servicer can collect late fees and other charges. "For servicers, the true sweet spot lies in stretching out a delinquency without either a modification or a foreclosure," notes Diane E. Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center.

What's the remedy? In the best of all possible worlds, Congress would be seriously looking at legislation to fix some of these problems. It could change the bankruptcy law, which currently makes a first mortgage the only kind of loan that bankruptcy judges are barred from shrinking. (The House approved that change in 2009, but the Senate balked.) It could require banks to offer loan modifications before foreclosure, limit foreclosure fees and push states to expand mediation programs. These are all proposals made by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) in a bill he introduced in September.

But in the current deadlocked Congress, even measures as voter-friendly as protecting distressed homeowners against foreclosure abuses appear beyond our legislators' ability.

Instead, the best hope for better foreclosure practices may lie with the 50 state attorneys general, who jumped on the scandal over "robo-signing" and are using their leverage over mortgage servicers in state courts to negotiate a broader set of reforms.

"It started as a mess, the robo-signing," said Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller, who's leading the effort. "We want to figure out a way that it leaves the whole situation much better than when the mess started."

That would come as welcome news to Sandoval. In September, after more than a year of negotiations, he turned down an offer from Bank of America that would have turned his $2,400-a-month mortgage into an interest-only loan for five years — but then increased his payment to about $3,000 a month after that. "My only source of income is disability, and that's not going up," he said. "The good thing is that I'm cheap. I don't spend money on much of anything besides the mortgage and property tax." He's still making his payments, in part by renting a room to his father – and still hoping for a better deal.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-column-foreclosure-20101118,0,2346654.column

O'h Please God, Let This Story Not be True

2010-02-03T18:15:00.001-08:00

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
World Net Daily

Bosom bombers: Women have explosive breast implants
Authorities alarmed by possibility of surgically placed explosives

Posted: February 01, 2010
10:16 pm Eastern

LONDON - Agents for Britain's MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives - usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) - are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up.

Similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers. In their cases, the explosives are inserted in the appendix area or in a buttock. Both are parts of the body that diabetics use to inject themselves with their prescribed drugs.

The discovery of these methods was made after the London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came close to blowing up an airliner on Christmas Day with explosives he had stuffed inside his underpants.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

Hours after he had failed, GCHQ - Britain's worldwide eavesdropping "spy in the sky" agency - began to pick up "chatter" emanating from Pakistan and Yemen that alerted MI5 to the creation of the lethal implants.

A hand-picked team was appointed by Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, to investigate the threat. He described it as "one that can circumvent our defense."

Top surgeons who work in the National Health Service confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.

In a report to Evans, one said: "Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines. You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray. Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner."

Explosive experts at Britain's Porton Down biological and chemical warfare research center told MI5 that a sachet containing as little as five ounces of PETN when activated would blow "a considerable hole" in an airline's skin which would guarantee it would crash.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123758

Change in Blog Style

2010-01-23T16:15:00.000-08:00

I have changed two things in this blog. The first is, except for rare instances, I am not going to post articles to this blog. Most of them have been moved to another blog I have that is for holding articles I find interesting.

Secondly, I am removing any automatic posting my tags to other services that take my tags and index them for other services like Yahoo. This is available with a blog composing tool I use. I noticed that, for reasons I can't explain, the number of readers to my site slowed down right after I enabled the automatic posting function.

What I Have Not Done And Don't Want To

2010-01-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

* Watch an Oliver Stone movie.
* Send or recieve a text message on my cell phone.
* Go into a Wallmart... except twice on a vacation where I really had no choice.
* Go skydiving, base jumping or bunjee jumping.
* Eat an insect on purpose... live or dead.
* Eat small rodents, worms or bats.
* Go vegetarian.
* Go New Age... except I do know that "what goes around comes around".
* Think it is okay for a Muslim woman to normally walk around with her head covered unless she is in a Muslim country.
* Ever think men and women are the same. But they are equal before God.
* Belive "everything is relative" at a fundamental level. When things seem relative it is only because of our lack of values or the limitations of our bodies and minds.
* That abortion is okay.
* Believe Heisenbergs Uncertainty Theory will always show it is impossible to know the exact position and momentum of a particle at the same time. Some other theory will come that will explain why this aparent impossibility is an illusion.
* Think homosexuality is okay. However, we are all sinners and everyone is worthy of respect... even when you disagree with them.
* Watched "Survivor" or other similar programs - this is good.
* Watched "American Idol" or other similar programs - this is probably bad.
* In the workplace act in a "kiss up and kick down" manner.

Climategate... Who is Behind The Hacking

2009-11-30T19:09:00.001-08:00

The Climategate scandal hit the world on November 17. Some hacker got to about 1,000 emails sent or received from Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain. These emails were posted on the Internet and the fun began....

These emails are very damaging to those who believe in global warming. It shows that many of the most influential global warming proponents, from the scientific community, in the world were actively skewing their data, trying to marginalize skeptics and making it impossible for their research to be properly reviewed.

My question is who was the hacker and who was directing him? This individual was obviously very skilled in the ways of networks and hackers. But some individual or group of individuals had to have aimed the hacker to the right target.

This individual had to have been very suspect of Phil Jones and his colleagues. He had to have been very involved in the entire global warming controversy. And he had to know where to post the hacked emails to get the most PR out of them.

I hope that the authorities find this person. Hypocritically, it is so it will have to go through the courts and that guarantees that there will be a lot of press coverage of these emails.

Technorati : Climategate, Global Warming, _Steve
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The Coming Liberal Thugocracy - Part 4

2009-10-21T18:24:00.001-07:00

It seems like President Obama and the White House are much to busy attacking their oponents in silly attacks. If they feel they need to attack their supposed "enemies" they should let their psychopathic supporters in the media do it. They have issues like Afghanistan and health care theat they should be spending time on. This following article does a good job of showing how combative and paranoid they are becoming.

Alexander to White House: Don't Create 'Enemies List' Oct. 21, 2009, 9:31 a.m. By Keith Koffler Roll Call Staff

Roll Call Magazine

Updated: 10:59 a.m. A top Senate Republican took to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to suggest that the Obama White House is plotting a political strategy similar to that of ex-President Richard Nixon and may be on the verge of preparing its own “enemies list.”

Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), who served in the Nixon White House, offered what he said was a “friendly suggestion” to the White House not to repeat the errors he saw committed by the staff of the disgraced former president. “Based upon that experience and my 40 years since then in and out of public life, I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President Obama and his White House: Don’t create an enemies list,” Alexander said. Describing the actions of Vice President Spiro Agnew and Nixon operative Chuck Colson, Alexander said he sees “symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama administration.”

Alexander read off a list of examples he says support his contention, including: a reported effort by the White House to marginalize the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a supposed effort by the Health and Human Services Department to put a “gag order” on the insurer Humana, the White House move to take on Fox News, Obama’s repeated criticisms of banks and investment houses, his alleged “taking names” of “bondholders who resisted the GM and Chrysler bailouts,” and the president’s move to make insurers the bogeyman of the health care debate.

Alexander claimed that the incipient White House “enemies” campaign extends even to Congress. He suggested that Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) was the victim of a sort of payback, saying that after Kyl suggested the stimulus plan wasn’t working, the White house subsequently wrote the governor of Arizona that, “If you don’t want the money, we won’t send it.”

He said that after he and Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) questioned the power of White House “czars,” they both were “called out” on the White House blog. “This behavior is typical of street brawls and political campaign consultants,” Alexander said. “If the president and his top aides treat people with different views as enemies instead of listening to what they have to say, they’re likely to end up with a narrow view and a feeling that the whole world is out to get them. And as those of us who served in the Nixon White House know, that can get you into a lot of trouble.”

After Alexander’s remarks, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) rose to speak on a different topic, but he first commented that it appeared Alexander was accusing the administration of “Nixifying” the White House — adding that he hoped the term would enter into “the lexicon.” Alexander replied that he was “seeing some signs” in the Obama White House that he had seen “at the early stages of Nixon.” http://www.rollcall.com/news/39733-1.html?type=printer_friendly

The Coming Liberal Thugocracy - 3

2009-08-07T20:21:00.001-07:00

The proposed American Health Care Reform legislation is very controversial and nobody knows what will happen. Opponents to the proposal are organizing against it. And it appears that President Barack Obama and his White House staff are blatantly going out and creating an enemies list and asking citizens to help fill the list in?

Wasn't President Obama one of those complaining about the Bush Administration asking citizens to report suspicious behavior of individuals after 9/11? At least that was for national security reasons, not political ones. And what about the Democrats, liberals and academics who complained loud and long about President Nixon's enemies list.

On top of this laws have been passed that specifically bar this kind of activity by the White House. I wonder if we will hear the ACLU whining about this?

From the August 4, 2009 White House Blog

"Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President's health insurance reform positions......

..There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

Ten Things I Worry About More Than the Possibility of Global Warming

2009-07-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

1. Islamofascism

2. Terrorism, including bio, chemical and nuclear terrorism

3. Nuclear proliferation

4. Global cooling

5. Hard line ecologists and global warming droids who don't realize they have really found a new religion

5. The decline in honey bees

6. Abortion

7. The decline of the acceptance of Judeo Christian values in the western world

8. Post modernism

9. Mega volcanoes, hurricanes and tsunamis

10. Self loathing and hating liberals

Is a Falling Dollar Bad?

2009-07-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

The US dollar has been the undisputed main currency used for trading and storing wealth (he keeps his money in his mattress) since World War II. It is used for almost all trading between countries. It has been challenged a few times but has always come out of it on top.

Although good for the US national ego I am not sure it has been good for the US' or the world's economies. And, I don't think it has been good for the US' national security or people.

Why has the dollar been so strong even when there has been a surplus of US dollars floating around in the world economy and there are so many economic problems in the US? One major reason: Almost all people in the world feel that if everything in the world falls apart the last refuge (besides gold) that will be left is the US dollar. That is why the dollar, relative to other currencies, does well during times of serious foreign crisis and less well in times of stability.

There have been serious problems with the strong dollar. One problem is manufacturing being driven out of the US and surplus US dollars floating around the world economy. Japan, China and other Asian countries have built their export driven economies on exports to the US. Besides a strong dollar they have gone out of their way to covertly keep their currencies weak. With a strong dollar, a weak yen and yuan, and an open market the US has been a sitting duck for exports from these countries. That has driven much of the manufacturing out of the US and created a huge amount of US dollars floating around the world economy.

Another problem has been the ability for the US to not suffer any ill short term effects for running budget deficits and a negative balance of payments balance year after year. When other countries do this the county rights itself or goes down the tubes. A great example is Brazil. Brazil ran negative budgets and balance of payments for years and went nowhere. It then got a hold of its budget and balance of payments and has done great for about 10 years.

In the US case so many individuals and countries wanted to put their surplus dollars back into the US, or to hold them, that there was no problem with the Federal government to keep running negative budgets and the dollar didn't crash because of the negative balance of payments. So, there were no economic signals sent to the US that would have forced the country to adopt long term supportable Federal budgets and trade policies.

There is now a concerted effort by many countries to stop using the US as the de facto world trading currency. It is led by China, Russia, Venezuela and Iran. They are doing it for political and economic reasons. As an American there is a part of me that automatically wants to stop this. But the more I think about it the more I think it would be good for the US.

The dollar would fall in value relative to other countries. That will make exports more competitive and imports more expensive. This is bound to bring a lot of manufacturing back to the US, help the economy and the balance of payments.

The dollar would not be nearly as desirous as it is now and this would make it very hard for the Federal government to keep borrowing. There simply won't be that many countries and individuals who would buy the governments debt. I consider this to be a good thing. It will enforce some discipline with the Federal budget that currently does not exist. And, in the long run, this is paramount if the US is to survive as a wealthy and powerful country.

So what is the downside with a dollar no longer one top? I don't really know. It will be bad for our short term national dignity for sure but so what? It also could force the dollar to fall too quickly and destabilize the world and US economy. But I don't see any other downside.

Why Obama's Stimulus Package is Failing

2009-07-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

It is early July 2009 and the American economy continues to decline. Unemployment is now 9.5% and rising while the Obama administration said it would top out at 8.5%. The stock market is starting to go back into a decline. Loan defaults ( housing, commercial property and consumer credit) are rising. There is no good economic news on the horizon.

And this is after the Democrats and Obama have spent 787 billion on their so called stimulus package. The Congressional Budget Office reports that only 21 billion of the package has resulted in contracts being let. Other smaller stimulus packages have worked much better. So what is wrong with this one?

The problem with the stimulus package is that it really isn't a stimulus package. It was a package of items the Democrats had wanted for a long time that they dressed up as a stimulus package to get it passed. It is that old "lipstick on a pig" thing again.

Much of the stimulus money is going to "green energy" projects. That money will result in very few jobs for the first year, if not years. And the multiplier effect of the funds allocated for green energy will be minimal.

Another big portion of the money is going for transportation. The Obama Administration and the Congressional Democrats told people the transportation projects would be "shovel ready"... well, in many if not most of the cases those "shovel ready" project's are anything but. Take the "Hot Lanes" projects in Santa Clara County of California. The money is allocated but the California Dept. of Transportation has not approved these projects. And then the contracts will need to get let and the designing completed. It could easily be early 2011 before these "shovel ready" projects get going.

The truth is that infrastructure projects take years to get going in today's regulatory environment. It is not like during the depression. When Roosevelt became president he was able to get the "Blue Ridge Parkway" started, at twelve different location, within 4 months. And they built the Hoover Dam at breakneck speed.

So allot of these stimulus monies are being wasted. Not that we don't need a lot of these projects they will fund, but we need true stimulus projects even more.

If the federal government really wanted to stimulate the economy with infrastructure projects they should have gone about it completely differently. They should have put out money to patch every pothole in the country. And how about every road project in the country under $1,000,000. These are small with few regulatory issues. The feds should also approve 2 or 3 times as many projects as there is money for and then only award the money to the projects that are truly shovel ready on a "first come first serve" basis. The ones that are late would be left out.

And what about tax breaks and tax refunds. Refunds have had a questionable track record in the last 10 years but there is no doubt about target tax breaks. They can work fast.

All and all, Obama and the Congressional Democrats have completely dropped the ball on getting the economy moving again.

My Mother's Death

2009-05-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

It was the 35th anniversary of my mother's death last week. I was 23 and my sister was 13. My mother was 47. My mother's early death was a shock to the whole family and all our friends. Nobody expected it. In the United States if you are white, middle class and young you don't think that something like that can happen.

I have never completely gotten over it. The affect of her death on my father and sister has probably been the reason I have never completely moved on. I still am sorrowfully amazed how her death was able to completely unravel my father. And what my father emotionally did to my sister.

Before her death I had thought my father was emotionally stronger than my mother.... looks can be deceiving.

I think about parents who loose young one's. I think how much more terrible the pain must be for them. I now grieve for any parent who looses a child.

Life does have a way of renewing itself though. My stepson, whom I didn't know for many years after my mother's death, was born four days after her death.

The Coming Liberal Thugocracy - 2

2009-05-10T19:43:00.001-07:00

Written by Jack Kelly, Thursday, 07 May 2009

President Hussein Obama's "car czar" has no experience in the automobile industry, and is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly paying kickbacks to obtain New York state pension business. A former journalist turned investment banker and Democrat party fund-raiser, Steven Rattner also was involved in a deal with Cerebrus Capital Management, the hedge fund which owns most of Chrysler, which made other Chrysler investors wonder if Mr. Rattner could decide without bias how the government should aid the auto firm.

They need wonder no longer. Mr. Rattner proposed a deal that would reward the United Auto Workers at the expense of the people who loaned Chrysler money, and attempted to bully bondholders into accepting it. The deal would have given bondholders about 30 cents on the dollar for their secured debts while giving UAW retirees about 50 cents on their unsecured debts.

"This of course is a violation of one of the basic principles of bankruptcy law, which is that secured creditors -- those who have lent money only on the contractual promise that if the debt was unpaid they'd get specific property back -- get paid off before unsecured creditors get anything," noted columnist Michael Barone.

In a radio interview, Tom Lauria, an attorney for several of the bondholders said: "One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House, and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight."

The White House denied it had made threats, but two other participants in the negotiations told the Business Insider that "conversations with administration officials left them expecting that they would be politically targeted."

Both told the Business Insider they'd voted for Mr. Obama. The client of Mr. Lauria's that was bullied into submission was Perella Weinberg, the firm that made White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel rich.

All of Chrysler's creditors who'd accepted TARP funds accepted the deal, but several firms which hadn't taken government money rejected it, forcing Chrysler to file for bankruptcy protection April 30. President Obama and other Democrats ascribed the rejection to "greed." But they have that exactly backward.

"Think carefully about what's happening here," Mr. Barone said. "The White House...is seeking to transfer the property of one group of people to another group that is politically favored. In the process, it is setting aside basic property rights in favor of rewarding the United Auto Workers for the support the union has given the Democrat Party."

Why should the UAW, which shares responsibility with Chrysler's management for running the company into the ground, be rewarded at the expense of the bondholders, without whose funds the doors at Chrysler would have been shut long ago? The bondholders represent pension funds on which workers who are not responsible for bankrupting Chrysler depend for their retirement.

Bailing out the UAW at the expense of the law may not be such a good deal for unions in the long run. Businesses need to borrow money. But, Mr. Barone asked, "Who is going to buy bonds from unionized companies if the government is going to take their money away and give it to the union?"

The shakedown of Chrysler bonholders is "an episode of Gangster Government," says Mr. Barone. It isn't just unionized companies that could suffer from the Obama administration's cavalier attitude toward the rights of bondholders. The Treasury department has to sell several trillion dollars worth of bonds to fund the president's massive spending.

"Will the White House treat Treasury bondholders better than they've treated Chrysler bondholders?" asks law professor Glenn Reynolds. The Chinese government, the largest foreign purchaser of Treasury securities, evidently doesn't think so. Treasury data for January and February indicate the Chinese have cut back substantially on their purchase of bonds. If those bonds go unsold, it isn't only Chrysler and General Motors who face bankruptcy.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Keeping Track of Bidens Gaffes

2009-05-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Joe Biden has never been accused of being shy. Next to Chuckey Shumer there was nobody in the US Senate who could be more dangerous if you got between him and a TV camera. But now with the TV camera's really on him it is becoming very apparent that Joe doesn't agree with Barack Obama on many issues and Joe Biden just continually gets it wrong. Remember Al Gore when he said he invented the internet? Well, Joe hasn't been quoted as saying anything that preposterous... but he still has time.

In May of 2009, Biden "said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment." The existence of this bunder was a closely held national secret and Joe might have commited a felony talking about it.

May 4,2009 (Aprox.) Joe told Katie Couric “When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’”

On March 13, 2009, Biden addressed a former Senate colleague by saying, "An hour late, oh give me a f**king break," after he arrived on Amtrak at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The vice president's expletive was caught on a live microphone.

During a Feb. 25, 2009, interview on CBS' "Early Show," Biden encouraged viewers to visit a government-run Web site that tracks stimulus spending. When asked for the site's web address, Biden could not remember the site's "number." "You know, I'm embarrassed. Do you know the Web site number?" he asked an aide standing out of view. "I should have it in front of me and I don't. I'm actually embarrassed."

At a Jan. 30, 2009, swearing-in ceremony of senior White House staff, Biden mocked Chief Justice John Roberts for his presidential oath blunder on Inauguration Day. "Am I doing this again?" Biden said, after Obama asked him to administer the oath. When Biden was told the swearing-in was for senior staff -- and not cabinet members -- the vice president quipped, "My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts," prompting a stern nudge from Obama.

On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 2009, Biden misspoke when he told a cheering crowd of supporters, "Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart." Justice John Paul Stevens -- not Stewart -- swore Biden in as vice president.

When criticizing former GOP nominee John McCain in Athens, Ohio, on Oct. 15, 2008, Biden said, "Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs."

Sep 22, 08. Uncle Joe infers his helicopter was forced down by the Taliban or Al Qaeda. "The superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down...John McCain wants to know where Bin Laden and the gates of Hell are? I can tell him where. That's where Al Qaeda is. That's where Bin Laden is. It's not in the country of Iraq."

Sep 23, 08. Biden supports clean coal for China, but not for the United States. "No coal plants here in America," he said. "Build them, if they're going to build them, over there. Make them clean." However, Obama is for clean coal!

In a Sept. 22, 2008, CBS interview, Biden misspoke when he said Franklin D. Roosevelt was president when the stock market crashed in 1929. "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened," he said. "Herbert Hoover -- not Roosevelt -- was president in 1929, and television had not yet been invented in 1929."

During a Sept. 12, 2008, speech in Columbia, Mo., Biden called for Missouri State Sen. Chuck Graham, who is wheelchair-bound, to "stand up." "Oh, God love ya," Biden said, after realizing his mistake. "What am I talking about?"

At a Sept. 10, 2008, town hall meeting in Nashua, N.H., Biden said, "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me."

Biden mistakenly referred to Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the "lieutenant governor" of her state during a town hall meeting on Sept. 4, 2008 at George Mason University in Manassas, Va. "I heard a very, by the way I mean this sincerely, a very strong and a very good political speech from a lieutenant governorof Alaska who I think is going to be very formidable, very formidable not only in the campaign but in the debate," Biden said.

Biden said he was running for president -- not vice president -- during a Sept. 1, 2008, roundtable discussion in Scranton, Pa. "Today is the moment for me as a United States senator running for president to put aside the national politics and focus on what's happening down there," Biden said.

Biden referred to John McCain as "George" during his vice presidential acceptance speech on Aug. 27, 2008, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Co. "Freudian slip, folks, Freudian slip," he explained.

Biden confused army brigades with battalions when speaking about Obama's plan for sending troops to Afghanistan. "Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?"

During his first campaign rally with Obama as his vice presidential running mate on Aug. 23, 2008, Biden introduced Obama by saying, "A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States -- Barack America!"

On Jan. 31, 2007 -- the day Biden announced his presidential bid -- the Delaware Senator was roundly criticized for calling Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Compiled from numerous sources including: Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/17/oops-biden-reveals-location-secret-vp-bunker/?test=latestnews

Judging Religion

2009-04-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting things I have noticed about Religion in modern America is what a poor opinion many people have of it. Now, I am very open to admitting there are many things to criticize about religion. However, the good far outweighs the bad in my mind. I find it sad and curious how much I run into people who have come to the opposite opinion or have no opinion at all.

Many judge religion to be bad because they see religious doing hypocritical things. Well, they are sometimes right. But, I ask them to judge these people not how they act but how much worse they would be if they did not have religion. We are all human beings with their foibles, including the religious.

I also run into some people who judge the religious by a standard that they seem to have picked up somewhere but it doesn't have much to do with reality. I was sitting with someone who knew I was a Christian and apologized for drinking in front of me. He wasn't getting drunk or carrying on, just having a tasty beer. I would have had one too if I would have felt like one. The Bible doesn't say you can't drink and Jesus did himself. The Bible only talks about living a sober (not drinking too much) lifestyle. I don't know of one Christian who doesn't drink and would thinks it is a sin to drink. Note: It is a different story if one drinks to much and affects himself or others around him or her. That is a different post.

One day I did something and let out a cuss word. My granddaughter let out a gasp as she had never heard me cuss. She said that she didn't even think I knew cuss words. I was saddened. I have no idea where she got the idea that being religious would make someone completely isolated from the "bad" side of life. No wonder some people are so shocked when a Christian does something they shouldn't.

Hopefully the religious are better than they would be otherwise. Hopefully, they are worthy role model. But they will never be perfect and the vast vast majority of them never pretend to be!

Questions for Barack Obama

2009-04-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

June 2, 2009 - Why aren't you going to church? Before you ran for the presidency you went to church pretty regularly. You almost always went to your home church, the Trinity Church of Christ which was pastored by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. But the Reverend Wright was shown to be a black racist and you and your family left the church. Too bad, considering you called him your mentor and he was definitely a father figure for you.

That unfortunate episode is in the past and I don't think you and your family have attended church much since then. Can't you find another pastor you like and think the same way you do? If there was ever a time that you need a strong relationship with God it is now.

May 20, 2009 - You often say that abortion should be legal and infrequent. If abortion is not immoral and nothing is wrong with it why should it be infrequent? With your reasoning there is no reason why there shouldn't be frequent abortions. It could be the preferred form of birth control.

April 20, 2009 - What were you thinking of when you ordered the Federal Cabinet Agencies to find 100 million in cost savings over the next 90 days? This amount is so small that it is meaningless. It amounts to 1/4 of the increase in budget Congress awarded itself. Did you really think you would get positive publicity for it? I think we have a great example of form over substance.

March 30,2009 - How can the Federal Government guarantee the warranties of autos? If an auto company goes bankrupt and disappears how can you guarantee there will be all of the parts needed for those cars? How can you guarantee there is a dealer garage to service those vehicles? How can you guarantee that the owners of the vehicles with the warranties won't be severely inconvenienced? I don't see any possible way without spending billions of dollars and still severely inconveniencing the auto owners.

March 19, 2009 - Do you really expect us to believe you didn't know about the AIG retention bonuses until a week before they were announced? You are a micromanager. You were the second biggest AIG campaign fund contributor in the last few years. You have people in the White House who do nothing but deal with what the political fallout will be for different administration actions. I think you timed this relatively minor issue to hide the billions AIG is giving out in the last 30 billion bailout - which went through during your presidency - to foreign banks.

Excess

2009-04-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

During the economic downturn that started in 2008 one of the social trends (in the United States at least) has been a reversion to basics. The media has had numerous stories about how the public seems to be recoiling from the excesses of the past. The savings rate of the American public has started rising considerably. People who are purchasing vehicles are buying more basic models and gas mileage is more important in the buying decision. Glamor destinations like Hawaii and Las Vegas are way down. The cover story of the April 27, 2009 American edition of Time Magazine is "The New Frugality". It goes on to say "The recession has changed more than just how we live. It's changed what we value and what we expect - even after the economy recovers. A special report."

As part of this I am presenting a collage of photos showing the excess in our society. Most of these monuments are American but not all. Some countries put us to shame in the excess category.

Las Vegas Strip at Night

It is pretty passe to link Las Vegas and excess. Vegas sets the standard. But how can you write about excess without mentioning Vegas? Anyway, I've had fun there.

Dubai's Palm Island And "The World

The Gold Standard for excess has to have moved from Vegas to Dubai with the creation of Palm Island and The World.

Bill Gates House

Michael Jackson's Nose

Michael Jackson has gone through an unknown number of operations and other procedures to make himself some sort of asexual, aracial thing. One of the byproducts of this has been his lack of a nose. Now he must wear fake noses. By looking at the photo it appears he has a number of noses so his nose can match his outfit. And his skin. God only knows what he did to it to lighten it. To think that you can actually remake your sex and race is sick.

Salaries

The salaries of executives and others has grown to astronomical levels in the last few years. The executive salaries are mostly an American issue. The salaries of sports and media figures is a world wide phenomenon.

These salaries have skyrocketed almost any way that you can look at them. They are going up much faster than the average pay of a working stiff. The graph that follows shows this.

What is particularly guiling is that many of the corporate CEO's that caused the subprime mortgage crisis are the same ones with the sky high salaries.

Tattoos

Any time you write about excess it is impossible to not be judgemental and let your background, culture and likes come out. If everything in the world is "value neutral" it would be impossible to define anything as excessive.

Ya, I know about tattoos being a cultural thing in many societies. What can I say.

"Excess is a state of something being present beyond usual, proper, or specified limits 2: undue or immoderate indulgence." Webster

Member of a Social Group Showing His Culture

Prisoner With Tattoos Made From Melted Rubber

Gold on Food

Eating sprinkled gold on food, or good decorated with gold, is popular with the very wealthy in some parts of Asia.

Pyramids

Maybe the ultimate example of excess would be a pyramid. By our standards they served no purpose at all. But, since they were build they have inspired awe by humans everywhere. They were excessive but I would argue that they have made a big positive difference in how we feel about ourselves.

AIG

Presently, AIG is the poster child of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis that has befallen the United States and much of the world. Pure greed drove them to insure mortgage pools that they knew they could never cover the losses of if more then a handful went bad. Along with them we can't forget FNMA, FDMC, Wall Street as a whole and many more.

Bernie Madoff

Purveyor of the biggest Ponzi scheme ever

Credit Cards

The credit card companies flooded the United States (I don't know where else) with credit cards, giving them to individuals with little hope of paying them back. They sometimes have Annual Percentage Rates of up to 35%. If someone gets behind, or there credit score declines, the interest rate on the cards increases.

What is worse is the banks (aka credit card companies) were able to push through Congress a rewriting of the bankruptcy law in 2002. It made it much tougher for individuals to declare bankruptcy and get away from the credit card debts.

Let's see.... Banks flood the country with high interest credit cards and give them to people who are bound to get into trouble with them. People get into trouble with there credit cards and the banks raise their interest rate even further. People default on there credit cards and try to declare bankruptcy. They are blocked from bankruptcy or are given very restrictive payback terms. What comes next? Go underground? Leave the country?

The Heart Attack Grill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbKRSYAuSNg

Excess is one of those things we all hate, at least if the excess is others. Your's is acceptable. Maybe not something to be praised but it isn't a "big deal". It is like other "sins" in society: Drinking to excess, smoking, taking drugs, prostitution and gambling. None of these are good but society has had to learn how to regulate most of them. Society doesn't regulate prostitution or drugs and we see the end results. Society regulates alcohol and gambling and the negative side fects of them are kept more under control.

Government has not regulated some of these examples given very well and we are paying the price for that right now in our economy and lack of geopolitical status for the United States. Some of these examples could never be completely controlled, like tattoos, and I don't think we should. If all excess was controlled we would live in a very boring and conformist world..... even if I personally don't like that excess.

Predatory Lending

2009-04-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Most people have a prety good idea what is meant if I mention "predatory lending" or a "predatory lender". The original predatory lender would be the "loan shark". It is someone who loans money at exorbinant interest rates.

But I would also consider a predatory lender someone who makes a loan to an individual that he knows can't be repayed or someone who hides the real terms of the loan.

Since 2007 we have all heard about the predatory home lenders and know only too well the damage they have caused. But what about the banks giving out credit cards with interest rates that are sometimes 30% or more. If that isn't predatory I don't know what is. Especially, when you consider how much harder Congress has made it, in the last few years, for someone to declare bankrupcy and get out from those credit card debts.

And what about the debt that has been foisted on a lot of third world countries by banks (some governments too). A thug dictator takes out a loan from a bank and spends the money on palaces and keeping in power. The dictator is overthrown and replaced by another dictator. Now, the country has nothing to show for the loan and is stuck paying off the loan. And this goes on and on and gets to the point where over 50% of the pitiful budget of the country is going to paying off banks.

Let's review..... Bankers make predatory loans to homeowners and throw the entire world into a deep recession and turmoil. Bankers make predatory loans to consumers with credit cards having exorbinant interest rates. They cause mass bankrupcies. They also cause people to refinance into predatory loans to pay off the credit cards. Bankers make loans to third world thugs and throw countries into even deeper poverty.

Perplexed About Newborns

2009-03-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

We are all taught that babies, when they are born, are pretty oblivious to the world. They know how to suck or learn it fast. They eat, cry or whimper, and sleep. And that is about it for a month or three. Well, I'm here to say that is not quite so.

My granddaughter was born about nine and a half years ago. I was lucky enough to visit her about 10 hours after she was born. I went into a corner of her birth "suite" and held her for about 20 minutes. There was lots of bonding and I think that has had a positive effect on our relationship since.

But here is the point. As I was holding her I would smile, turn and say something to someone else, make baby sounds, etc. I noticed that she seemed to be mimicking me and doing a pretty good job of it. To be sure I started turning my eyes, sticking out my tongue and she would follow me. I started moving my tongue to the sides of my mouth and she would follow suite almost exactly like I did. I then made my tongue into a "U" shape and she followed suite. I was quite amazed.

I have never heard about a newborn doing this. I have mentioned this to others and they say they have never noticed anything like this.

Now, I think my granddaughter is pretty special but I don't think she is that far ought of range on that bell shaped curve. So what gives? How come others don't talk about this or it isn't in child rearing books?

Now, I didn't see my granddaughter for another 4 days. At that point she was pretty oblivious to things. She didn't have the facial coordination I observed the first day for about 8 - 9 months.

Perplexed!

Fry's And The Economy

2008-11-21T05:06:00.001-08:00

11/21/08

Fry’s is a Silicon Valley phenomenon. It is the first US national electronic superstore. It started in the Silicon Valley, spread to Southern California and now has a foothold if a few other cities in the US.

In the Silicon Valley each store is finished off in a certain theme and has a near cult following. I go to the Store on Hamilton Blvd. in Campbell and it has an Egyptian theme. This store has 60 cash registers and around Christmas I have seen all of them open with a waiting line. Cars will be cruising in the parking lot waiting for a spot to open.

Yesterday, on Nov. 20 of 08, I went to the Campbell store at 4:00 PM and the parking lot was over 60% empty. When I got inside of the store it felt empty. I have never seen anything like this – even after the dot.com meltdown hit Silicon Valley shortly after the year 2000. After the dot.com meltdown the Fry’s stores seemed as busy as ever. And the dot.com debacle hit the Silicon Valley harder than anywhere else in the United States.

If anyone wonders how serious the present economic situation is let me tell them it is serious. If it is affecting Silicon Valley geeks it is serious.

Why I Write This

2008-11-09T11:58:00.001-08:00

11/9/08 I wish the world would read this but I really want a place to vent and organize my feelings.

Blogs are supposed to be interactive. But you will notice that this blog doesn't have a place for the reader to post a comment. That pretty well shows my priorities. I spend my life listening too, and needing to weigh the opinions of others. This is about the single place where I can coherently vent my own views and feelings. I hope others find it interesting, but truthfully that is pretty much a distant second in importance.

With writers, there is a feeling by publishers that nearly all writers put too much content into their first novel. The writer has been storing up all this "stuff" that he or she needs to get out. So, the first book often becomes a rant. Well, that pretty much describes my situation.

There is another reason too. This blog is a great place to put "stuff" for easy retrieval in the future. I have been in so many conversations where I will make a point and someone will say no, it can't be... Now I can store those documents relating to the points.

You will know I am beyond this when I open up the ability for the reader to post comments.

I Wish Obama Good Luck

2008-11-09T11:07:00.001-08:00

11/9/08 Like most people I want to be right. Right about my personal choices. Right abut my politics. Right about everything. Some people are obsessed about being right, especially in relationships.

For at least the last 25 years my politics have been to the right and, living in Northern California, that means I almost always vote differently than most others. And, when people do vote to the right in California they are usually voting as a reaction to something else, and I am not necessarily in line with them about those items. One example is California term limits which I thought was too strict and would have negative unintended consequences. Unfortunately I was right.

Sometimes people appear to be right about something, but it is not for the reason they state. I always say I would rather be lucky than good. One example of this is Bill Clinton. He made a lot of bad choices at the beginning of his presidency (raising taxes and health care) and was going nowhere. The economy wasn't growing much if at all. The stock market was in the doldrums. Most individuals were very unhappy with Bill, Hillary and their proposed takeover of the American health care system. Then the Republicans took control of the House and Senate, and the stock market started strengthening. Also, PC's were becoming more prevalent and real efficiency gains were starting to be seen from them that positively affected the economy. Also, in Clinton's second term, the dotcom bubble started and international trade started booming. Both of these really drove the economy up. In all of these positive events (at least they were positive in Clinton's presidency) there is little that Clinton had to do with but he could crow about how his policies early in his presidency (like raising taxes ~ which was really a strain on the economy) was creating all the prosperity being seen. I have always called him "Lucky Bill".

This brings me to our new President Obama. I was against him for may reasons. He has no real executive experience, except for shaking down banks for money to fund the loans now part of or subprime mess. He was wrong about Iraq. He has not real understanding of international events - he speaks very naively. He will probably stop work on the US Mexico border fence which has proved to be successful. He will want to give illegals drivers licenses. He will try to kill off nuclear energy and offshore oil drilling - our only real short term hopes for energy relief. He wants to tax, tax, tax. And don't believe that it is only the rich he will tax.

But the fact remains that he is very popular internationally and has charisma ~ these are worth a lot. And, I would rather have a lucky president than not.

So, I wish Obama good luck. He and us need it. No matter where you live.

Don't Declare Your Race And Sex

2008-08-26T20:13:00.001-07:00

The government uses racial and sexual data for a lot of inmoreal and misguided policies.

Why inmoral? Simple, the Constitution is based on the idea of equality of all, especially before the law. Our laws have almost always exressed that. And, there is no doublt that morality in the Western world is based on that.

In my blog posting named NYT Revealed True Cause of Fannie Mae Crisis -- In 1999! it acan be seen that the attempt to change standards to help American minorities buy homes started a process that is mostly responsible for the current financial cirisis.

One of the most important ways the government get it's racial and sexual data is from applicatins. Think about almost every aplication you fill out. There is almost always a section for you to put your sexual and racial id. The government then uses that track trends and discriminate against groups not as politically popular as others. For instance, you are judged differently on most college entrance applications if you are Hispanic or black versus white or Asian.

One easy way to stop this is if individuals would not put down their true sex and race. For instance, I normally put that I am a female who is half Filipino and half Eskimo. If we could get just 10 percent of the population to do that in the US we could make the racial statistics meaningless. And sooner or later the uselessness of the statistics would become apparent and courts or bureaucrats would stop the use of the statistics for dividing us.

One more thing, not filling out the sex and race on the form or application does no good. The receiver of the form is typically charged to fill it in themself with their best guess. However, if you fill it in the law typically does not anyone else to challenge it r change it.

The Bill Joel Song "Burning" With a Video

2008-07-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

(Click on the above word "Burning")

Medicine in the UUnited States

2008-07-19T18:52:00.002-07:00

If you are in the United States you know that one of the major stresses in peoples lives is medical care. For many individuals it is not availale because of pre existing conditions or due to it's costs. And for many companies supplying employees wih health care is one of their major costs and it is driving the company close to bankrupcy. A example of this is the American auto companies. We hear a constant drum beat from the left that we need some sort of government take over of health care to make health care more available. I see a couple of issues that need to be resolved before it will be economically feasible to rationally let government take over health care.

First, as a country we need to accept that health care is not something that can be given in unlimited amounts to everyone. A smart man named Say coined a concept now referred to Say's Law: it states that in some situations supply creates it's own demand. And that is exactly what happens with medical care. As a society we need to ration out medical care in a rational way.

The (relative to other countries) abundance of medical care - for the insured - in the United States does not mean better overall health. There was a study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May of 2006 and recapped in the New York Times a few days later. The study compared the health of British and Americans. It stated that "The United States spends more than twice as much per person on health care as Britain and yet, according to new data released today, older Americans are "much sicker" than their English counterparts". It went on to state "wealthier and better-educated people in both countries were much healthier than poorer and less-educated people. "Differences in socio-economic groups between the two groups were so great that those in the top education and income level in the U.S. had similar rates of diabetes and heart disease as those in the bottom education and income level in England." Later it stated "health insurance cannot be the central reason for the better health outcomes in England because the top socio-economic status tier of the U.S. population have close to universal access but their health outcomes are often worse than those of their English counterparts." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/health/02cnd-health.html?ex=1304222400&en=3ccb7daab5e6c270&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

It is a false argument to just think that you don't want the government controlling medical are in the US. The truth is that we are just about there right now. The Federal and State Governments now control just about exactly 50% of the total number of dollars spend on medical care in the United States. This includes programs like Medicare, the newly passed prescription drug program and state covered medical care for the poor. The percentage of the total US medical dollars spend in the private market will continue to drop every year.

So, in my opinion it would be better to just get over the idea that we have a basically non-governmental medical system and start building a system that is rationally alocated between the government and private.

One Bad Ass!

2008-07-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

This story comes from one of those emails floating around on the internet that found me. I can't imagine how someone could have faked thses photos. This may be a first... A couple from Montana were out riding on the range, he with his rifle and she (fortunately) with her camera. Their dogs always followed them, but on this occasion a Mountain Lion decided that he wanted to stalk the dogs (you'll see the dogs in the background watching). Very, very bad decision. The hunter got off the mule with his rifle and decided to s hoot in the air to scare away the lion, but before he could get off a shot the lion charged in and decided he wanted a piece of those dogs. With that, the mule took off and decided HE wanted a piece of that lion. That's when all hell broke loose for the lion. As the lion approached the dogs, the mule snatched him up by the tail and started whirling him around. Banging its head on the ground on every pass.. Then he dropped it, stomped on it and held it to the ground by the throat. The mu le then got down on his knees and bit the thing all over a couple of dozen times to make sure it was dead, then whipped it into the air again, walked back over to the couple (that were stunned in silence) and stood there ready to continue his ride as if nothing had just happened. Fortunately, even though the hunter didn't get off a shot, his wife go off these four pictures.

Happy Trails!

Diversity

2008-07-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

Webster's definition of "diverse": 1: differing from one another 2: composed of distinct or unlike elements or qualities. One of the most currently popular phrases is "diversity". It is normally used to suggest that, in any group of people it is always better to have a diverse group. However, there is often an undertone of conformity. People might be physically different but it is assumed they will think and act the same. There is little room for nonconformance. A cloud of political correctness seems to descend on the diversity.

Colleges and universities are often a good example of these conflicting tendencies of diversity and conformity. On a college campus a cry is often heard to make the school more diverse in all possible ways: "we need more female staff because...; a person of color is needed to fill that history position because no European person could understand...; the only reason we don't have more lesbians is because they feel threatened by...". And on and on it goes.

One place that I fondly remember was the work lunch table that I enjoyed for a number of years. There was little diversity of age or sex. Two of the four of us were white Christians, one was a cultural Jew and the other was a Japanese American who I assume is an agnostic. But no topic was "off limits". There was a real diversity of opinions and discussed topics. The only thing we all agreed on was our strong dislike of "political correctness". Many items discussed could have gotten us disciplined or even fired if heard by the wrong person.

When there is a great diversity of sexes, cultures, religions and ages I don't think there usually is much diversity of opinion. Everyone is afraid of offending someone else or, depending on the environment they are in, getting in trouble with the thought police. As a result, in these diverse environments there is a stifling conformity where things are talked about only from the viewpoint of the current dominant paradigm.

I would match the real diversity of my previous lunch group with just about any other group of people out there. So, what is really more diverse, a group of 50 - 60 year old guys who don't look all that different from one another or a group of people, with different sexes, ages and backgrounds, all afraid to say what they really feel?

The World Food Crisis

2008-07-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

The World Bank estimates that global food prices have risen 83 percent in the last three years. Hence, food riots in Haiti, Egypt and Ethiopia, and the use of troops in Pakistan and Thailand to protect crops and storage centers. Many countries are banning or limiting food exports. World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick says that 33 countries are at risk of food related upheaval. Famine may revisit North Korea, parts of Africa or Afghanistan.

To many, the villain is biofuels. U.S. and European ethanol programs, intended as an antidote to climate change and an alternative to OPEC oil, stand accused of snatching food from the world's hungry. According to India's finance minister, ethanol is "a crime against humanity." But ethanol's impact should not be overstated. The International Food Policy Research Institute, which is critical of ethanol, pins about 25 to 33 percent of the recent price rise on biofuels; the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization guesses about 10 to 15 percent.

(Note dated 7/7/08: National Public Radio reported that a World Bank report is being quashed that states biofuels are responsible for 75% of the world food price increases.)

Most of the crisis is rooted in three other factors: Drought in grain-exporting Australia. The surging price of crude oil, which raises food prices through the costs of shipping and petrochemical fertilizer. And booming demand for food in China, India and other newly prosperous areas of the developing world. These areas consume not only more staples such as rice and wheat but also more meat from animals fed on grain.

This trend is here to stay --and, unlike Australian drought or oil inflation, no one should want it to go away. In richer developed nations, where people spend an average of 10 to 15% of their disposable income on food, price hikes have been a growing irritation. But in the developing world, where most poor people spend at least half of their income to eat, rising costs threaten to create major social unrest.

In Haiti, at least five protesters were killed this month after hungry mobs tried to storm the presidential palace, and later lawmakers voted to dismiss the country's prime minister. Food riots have also flared across Africa's Sahel and in Mexico, Uzbekistan and Morocco. Egypt's government has put the army to work baking subsidized bread. All told, 33 countries around the world are at risk of social upheaval as a result of acute increases in food and energy prices, said Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, in a speech this month. In countries where buying food requires half to three-quarters of a poor person's income, "there is no margin for survival," he warned.

One example of how this all fits together. The US, Mexico and Canada create NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. As a result of NAFTA Mexico started importing a lot of it's corn from the US instead of growing it. Then the Bush Administration and Congress create a "biofuels policy" to turn corn into gasoline. This has resulted in much more corn being grown to meet the new demand but has had a major side effect…. corn now is priced for it's energy content and not for it's food value. And it is much more valuable for it's energy. So corn more than doubles in price. So, the price of tortillas in Mexico more than doubles. Food riots occur. Hunger grows. More Mexicans come North to survive. The same corn scenario is happening with soybeans. The biofuel that is being sold mostly comes from soybeans. Biofuel is big in Europe. Soybeans are being priced for their energy content and not their food value. Some wheat and, especially, rice land is being diverted to soybeans (and some corn) in foreign countries. So guess what's happening to the price of rice and wheat? Why are all of these things so interrelated? Because, as an energy product, they are nearly perfectly "Fungible"

"fungible - of goods or commodities; freely exchangeable for or replaceable by another of like nature or kind."

The Bottom Line and what to do? Globalization is creating world prosperity, but it is not even. Growing world prosperity is driving up commodities, especially food and oil. People and countries not on the wining side of globalization are being severely hurt. Biofuels (especially ethanol) are exacerbating the problem and not doing any good for anyone except farmers. Don't vote for politicians who talk about growing our way out of the lack of energy. Maybe, someday, more efficient biofuel production will make sense. But we would still need much more land to grow the biofuel on so we aren't taking food out of peoples mouths. The US needs to take the agricultural land it pays farmers not to grow crops on out of that program and put that land back into production. In a food market of scarcity droughts, etc. can also have much more severe affects than would be typical.

Fires and Bad Air

2008-06-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

On June 21, 08 there was a series of lightning storms throughout central and northern California which have resulted in approximately 1,400 fires starting. Most of them are nothing more than a smoldering tree trunk or a few bushes burning above the timber line. However, even if only 10% of them resulted in a serious fire that is still major. Attached is a photo of the major fires and smoke taken from space on June 25.

These fires are unprecedented for California but they are not because of global warming. We had a dry winter but California has many dry winters. There were only two real differences. One was that the lightning strikes were all over northern and central California and not just over the Sierras ~ where they usually occur.

The other difference is that federal and state rules keep the forests from being thinned out like they need to be. In a perfect state of nature most of the brush and some of the forests in California and many parts of the west would burn every 10 to 25 years. Many of the trees can't even reproduce without a fire allowing the seeds to spread and germinate. But man has been controlling fires in the west for over 100 years. And, because we can't let fires burn in many areas we need to do controlled burns, timber thinning (reduce the density of trees in an area) and remove the brush in a forest. When these aren't done an area that hasn't had a burn becomes set for a catastrophic type of fire.

Lake Tahoe is a prime example of what can happen when a forest is not properly managed. Fires have not been allowed to burn for over 100 years because of people being in the area. At the same time the forests have become much thicker, many trees have died and are now diseased and brush is growing inside of the forests. What resulted was a disastrous fire in 2006 that destroyed about 200 homes. The good news is that it could been a lot worse ~ the entire Tahoe basin could have burned.

I was listening to a report about how the earth is changing because of global warming on NPR in early 2008. It blamed the death of lodgepole pines in many parts of the west to the increasing warmth caused by global warming. Somehow it failed to mention that lodgepole pines only live for about 100 years and can only reproduce in an area where there has been a fire. This phenomenon can be seen in many areas of the Grand Tetons National Park. This is just another example of the media hyping global warming.

Another example is another report on NPR that occurred in early 2008 regarding global warming, where they stated global warming is causing insect to multiply and forests are being overwhelmed by these insect infestations and destroying trees . Again they failed to mention that a lack of fires and tree thinning has caused a buildup of diseased trees that are prone to insect infestations that kill off trees that, otherwise, would be healthy. This has been the real prime cause of the many major southern California fires in 2006 and 2007.

April 24, 2008 NPR story on pine tree infesting beetles:

http//www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=89905032&m=89905005