Are declining home prices always such a bad thing?
Filed under: Discrimination, Me Stuff, Race, Society & Economy, U.S. Politics
It’s been a cool breezy summer here in Oak Park IL. Not so good for the beach, but delightful for long walks and bike rides. The overpriced condos are popping up like toadstools after a gentle rain and the homeless can beg for money in relative comfort.
I had just returned from a bike ride to our local bank when I went downstairs to pick up the mail. Amongst the bills, appeals for donations and the carry-out menus was one of those Official Letters. You know the ones. They have the Internal Revenue Service, a collection agency or a lawyer’s office as a return address—- the kind of mail that freezes the blood even as it races the heart. Read more
I Learned a New Abbreviation Today
I learned a new abbreviation: ELE, Extinction Level Event. Yep, the Big One. The Apocalypse. The End Times. The Last Days. The Final Checkout. Neither the BP oil blowout nor the more recent Fukushima nuclear disaster were Extinction Level Events. It takes a cascade of bad karma to create an ELE. How much bad karma? Nobody knows. Ignorance is not bliss. Just more bad karma Read more
Shaping Up the 21st Century
On the docks of the USA it was called “the shape up”. Each morning hundreds of desperate men would assemble to compete for a day’s work unloading ships. Whoever would work for less or gave the biggest kickbacks to the port bosses was hired. The rest were sent away. It was a system rife with corruption, bribery & favoritism. Every day was a race to the bottom. Watch Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront” to get an idea of how bad it was. Read more