Housing Agency Flexes Muscle As Loan Defaults Grow

Nov 04, 2009 - FHA loans only require 3.5 percent down, and credit score requirements are flexible. Some lenders are taking full advantage of that flexibility. It reminds Cecala of the subprime mortgage market of the past. - 0 Comments

Who Killed California?

Oct 15, 2009 - by Troy Senik http://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/who-killed-california My apologies for having nothing originally in this post.  The text was here but didn't show up. Apparently this article is too long to be printed here, at about 11 pages.  It is nevertheless worth reading, unless, as someone has already done, you have made your  mind up what to believe before reading. - 29 Comments

Spitting in the eye of mainstream education

Jun 02, 2009 - Spitting in the eye of mainstream education Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test -- and produce some of the state's top scores. By Mitchell Landsberg May 31, 2009 http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter31-2009may31,0,6518091,full.story Reporting from Oakland -- Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: "We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . - 4 Comments

Revenge of the Aristocrats (Eco-hypocrisy)

Apr 28, 2009 - PUBLIC POST * IMO this is additional, and clearer (due to the aristocratic connections), evidence that eco-fascism is one more tool in the hands of the privileged to keep the lower classes and developing countries from bettering their circumstances. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, April 27, 2009 Revenge of the Aristocrats [Brendan O’Neill] Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne who is most famous for talking to plants, has signed a deal to make a movie and write a book about climate change. The project will be called “Harmony,” because, in Charles’s words, humankind must “rediscover that sense of harmony, that sense of being a part of, rather apart from, nature.” His film will educate the unruly masses — with their fast cars, fridges, and other planet-destroying luxuries — that human beings “have a sacred duty of stewardship of the natural order of things.” The thought of being lectured about living more meekly by a taxpayer-subsidized prince who has never done a proper day’s work in his life — and who is currently flying around Europe on a private jet with a master suite and plush bathroom that will spew a whopping 53 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere over the course of his five-day, $116,000 charter — is of course eye-swivellingly irritating. - 6 Comments

Forget Red vs. Blue -- It's Educated vs. People Easily Fooled (public)

Nov 12, 2008 - By Chris Hedges, Truthdig Printed 11/12/2008 We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. - 39 Comments

Atlantic City, NJ: 30 years of casino gambling - it's still a big deal

May 27, 2008 - 30 years of casino gambling - it's still a big deal By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Published: Sunday, May 25, 2008 From the Press of Atlantic City: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/185/story/166723.html From Indiana Avenue , tall buildings and casinos on the skyline. ATLANTIC CITY - In Massachusetts, the governor is pushing plans to build three resort-style casinos. Kentucky's governor wants a dozen casinos for his state. - 1 Comment