First up:
Michele tagged something before I got a chance. It has been rattling around in my head for a while and I'm really not happy about it.
Stop the Mortgage Bailout. Call me a damn fiscal conservative but if you were upside down in a mortgage with screwed up rates banking on the every spiraling increase in the "Value" of your home to pay for your giant SUV, your giant wide screen HDTV with surround and giant theater style leather matching reclining couches, and your new kitchen with "PRO" stainless stuff... so you can consume and show off to your friends how much you are wasting and consuming while shopping at Walmart to save "money" there is no way we the people should be bailing your sorry ass out. Or the asses of the greedy mortgage brokers who sold you the stuff in the first place. I checked with Country wide before buying our house. The feeling of "hey if you go with this 'package' you can get into a house $100,000 more expensive than you can with a trad mortgage!" Um. No Thanks.
And now. All these people who are stuck with this houses they can't afford need help? If they'd just bought a small house instead of some McMansion in the first place they'd be okay. Right? I mean who needs 10,000 square feet of house for a family of 4? Seriously?
I did hear a positive spin on the housing market problems. With the massive downturn it is making home ownership possible for people who were priced out of the market previously. That's good. Buying and owning your dwelling is a pretty cool thing, far more benefit to be derived than just cash.
Second up:
Greg posted a bit about the Lemond vs Trek and offered up a very interesting link to puruse: InvesitgateLance.org.
Yes please. If only 1/2 of the rumors about the stuff Lance has done are true then he is probably the rider most guilty of dopage. Dopers Suck. Flat out no question. They suck. They should burn.
Third:
Thanks to flahute, I noticed Fatty's column at Bike Radar. (yes i guess i hit flahute's page before fatties).
That's pretty crappy. Not funny. No way is that a good settlement for Greg. Wicked biased towards Trek. Alot like Padraig's article over at whatchamacallit (slowtwitch.com). Although Pad's was slightly more informative even when seeming to demonify(sp?) Greg.
And last, the Pic Urban Velo chose for the 'story' is perfect. Lemond with his most comical expression.
That kind of covers it.
Oh and man I love me my big Klein with its wonderful ~61cm top tube and 130mm stem. Ah Good good goodness. First real ride on it since Jamestown I think (unless you count a handful of trainer sessions and the hybrid commute - i don't).
Riding is just flat out cooooooool.
heddwch
g
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
The mortgage fiasco isn't just about big McMansions. It's about preditor mortgage lenders who give horrible loans out. If the buyer could pay the huge ballooning payments, they win. If the buyer can't pay it, they also win, because property values were skyrocketing, and they'd come out ahead.
If there's an a-hole to be targeted here, I'd suggest looking at these guys who BANKED on defaulted mortgages. Now that the housing market has declined, this business model is no longer viable. This is the problem, because the cycle stops at them instead of starting over again with a new sucker.
I've got a family member who's going to loose her condo. She was young and naive. Everyone told her YES and encouraged her to over extend her financial capabilities. They encouraged her to twist the truth on her loan application.
Yeah, she made a mistake, and she's paying for it. But in my view, she's not the only one who did wrong.
Re: foreclosure: Agreed on all counts. But the impact of 2 million foreclosed homes this year on our neighborhoods will, in the aggregate, be worse. Empty homes can attract unsavory people.
The vacant house across the street was used dump a getaway vehicle from an armed bank robbery.
This is why state and local governments are working to prevent foreclosures and buy vacant homes.
good points good points...
'round here vacant houses are being stripped of all copper for the scrap value.
When a home is heated with steam or hot water (like many/most in this region are) it adds a HUGE cost to the next potential owner of the property.
It is a complicated and somewhat tenuous situation. As any with more than one good answer tends to be.
what to do... what to do....
Hey just look at the Saturday paper.. How many foreclosure auctions you see in there? 100+? There used to be only 5-10 of em..
We're actually going to attend one such auction in East Greewich this month.. Buy on weakness.. sell on strength.
vermont was one of 2 states to see home prices continue to freaking rise. the state that can least afford it (ok, not the least, but close to it).
we cant live many miles from work without driving for hours on tiny crapy roads.
i dont even know why people want to live here...
please...the French had 7 years to prove that Lance was doping, so give it a rest.
yeah - okay dave... suuuuuuure
you working on resembling an ostrich?
Post a Comment