I'm Sick With A Cold

I'm Sick With A Cold

Hence, the lack of activity here. I am only able to work a few hours a day, and the rest of the time is spent sleeping.

I Think He Just Failed His Goal

I Think He Just Failed His Goal

From the February 13, 2009 Buffalo News:

Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.
Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.
"He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead," Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.
Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.
Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light. [emphasis added]

I can understand why in the passion and anger of divorce (she had filed for divorce recently) a man with a short temper might escalate an argument to hitting. I would not approve, but I can understand passion getting carried away.

I can even understand why the sense of loss and betrayal might escalate to murder. When police officers investigate a murder, and they find multiple knife wounds, for example, they start out by assuming an intimate relationship between victim and killer--because this shows that someone cared very deeply, and felt very betrayed.

But beheading her? Wow. There are cultural differences between Islam and the West, and they show up in some pretty amazing ways.

Creative Destruction

Creative Destruction

One aspect of capitalism that is ugly but necessary is the boom/bust cycle. Why is it necessary? Because the bust cycle has what economists call "creative destruction," as resources get reallocated from less productive to more productive enterprises. What do I mean by "reallocated"?

During the boom phase, businesses invest. If they are manufacturers, they may be investing in tooling to manufacture products. They may be investing money in research & development to figure out what to make next. They may be adding stores to a chain, or adding retail space to an existing store. They may be hiring more workers.

Inevitably, the sum of demand from all the different businesses doing such investments is going to drive up prices. If unemployment is low, and there aren't a lot of workers available, this drives up wages. If machine tool manufacturers are short of capacity, they will jack up the price to take advantage of demand. If office space is in short supply, the costs will go up, as owners or landlords take advantage of the opportunity. Interest rates also rise, as the quantity of money available to lend raises static, while the number of businesses trying to borrow goes up.

Also inevitably, some of those investment decisions aren't so good. A chain overestimates the number of new stores that it needs to add. An existing business discovers that adding 25% to the store didn't increase sales by 25%. A business that was profitable when the average employee cost $14.25 per hour (including payroll taxes and overhead) might not be so profitable when the cost is now $16.50 per hour.

What happens during the bust part of the cycle? Businesses shed workers, equipment, and space. When they do so, it may not be that the business does not make sense anymore. It may be simply that the business does not make sense at the boom phase prices and costs. Imagine if Johnny's Bagels is paying $1900 a month for payments on loans for the bagel making machinery, because they took out that business loan in the mature phase of the boom. They close up one or two or their stores, and sell the bagel making equipment.

Gordon's Bagels comes along, and buys that used bagel making equipment. First, the equipment is now used, and therefore cheaper than it was new. Second, even the new equipment wouldn't be that expensive now, because not so many people are buying bagel making equipment; the manufacturer can't be so greedy, and will likely cost prices. Third, because interest rates typically fall during a bust, Gordon's Bagels may end up paying $1400 a month for the equipment that used to cost Johnny's Bagels $1900 a month. Gordon's Bagels may be able to make a profit where Johnny's Bagels could not.

There are similar issues with labor costs and retail space. I'm making quite a bit less than I did at HP, and I suspect that I am not alone in this experience--even excluding those who are still collecting unemployment.

None of these creative destruction experiences are pleasant when you are going through them. But they are part of why boom/bust cycles take place on a regular basis. Socialism's attempts to "rationalize" this process have not been successful because it seems to replace the individual decisions of tens of millions of consumers and businessmen with the collective decisions of bureaucrats far removed from the needs and desires of those who actually want bagels, cars, and refrigerators.

The Weirdness Continues

The Weirdness Continues

I've mentioned before that I just couldn't taken seriously the claim that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii--except for how oddly Obama's lawyers responded to these lawsuits. Apparently, Alan Keyes's suit continues--and with a new twist:

As many of you know, I am party to one of the lawsuits seeking evidence that would help to establish, one way or the other, whether Obama in fact meets the U.S. Constitution's eligibility requirements for the office of President of the United States. To understand my view of the critical issues involved see the WND articles The End of the Constitutional Republic, and Obama, Oaths and the End of Constitutional Government.) Now Obama's lawyers have filed a motion to quash our effort to obtain the relevant documents (cf. Bob Unruh's WND article Sanctions sought in eligibility case.) I am told that it includes a demand that monetary penalties be assessed against me and the other plaintiffs in the suit.

Turn over the original long form birth certificate, and all these suits would go away. What's on that original long form birth certificate that is so worrisome that Obama won't hand it over?

I've seen the claim made, "If he turns over the birth certificate, then they'll want to see his college records." But there's a legitimate question about his birth certificate as it relates to Obama's legal authority to be president--unlike his college records. Why is this an issue? Because Hawaii will reissue birth certificates for people that were not born there, but were adopted there, and because Obama did hold Kenyan citizenship (through his father) until 1982.

Like I have said repeatedly: Obama could have made all these suits go away by offering to the court the original, long form birth certificate from when he was born in Hawaii. Obama and the DNC have spent at least tens of thousands of dollars--and probably far more than that--arguing about standing. This doesn't make any sense, unless there's something on that Hawaiian birth certificate that is so embarrassing that it makes sense to spend money keeping these suits alive.

Politician Humor

Politician Humor

I had quite a laugh when this arrived in my email.

Did you read about this in the news?

The rest of the world cannot understand how, after bitter election campaigns, American politicians can kiss and make-up.

For instance, Gov. Palin has invited, to her great state of Alaska, the men who defeated her, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. She has set up a moose hunting trip for their enjoyment and hired three prominent experts in their field to assist them.

Dick Cheney will lead them on the hunt, Ted Kennedy will drive them back to their cabins each evening, and Bill Clinton will entertain their wives and daughters.

What a lady! That Sarah is such a sport and thinks of everything!

For those of you who aren't old enough: Google "Dick Cheney" hunting accident, and "Ted Kennedy" Chappaquiddick. Anyone who doesn't know why Bill Clinton's inclusion is funny probably shouldn't be reading this blog.

The Poster Boy For Subprime Mortgage Lending

The Poster Boy For Subprime Mortgage Lending

I've seen this one mentioned before, but here is the primary source: the May 3, 2007 Hollister (Cal.) Freelance:

Hollister - Despite making only $14,000 a year, strawberry picker Alberto Ramirez managed to buy his own slice of the American Dream. But his Hollister home came with a hefty price tag - $720,000.

A year and a half later, Ramirez has defaulted on his loan, and he's hoping to sell the house before it's repossessed. And according to many housing advocates and civil rights groups, Ramirez is not alone. As mortgage foreclosures rise, many minorities are suffering.

In April, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the NAACP, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the National Council of La Raza and the Center for Responsible Lenders called for a six-month moratorium on subprime home foreclosures. Those groups reported that minorities receive a disproportionate share of riskier subprime loans, and while those loans make up only 13 percent of the overall mortgage market, they account for more than 60 percent of new foreclosure filings.

...

Deidre Swesnik, director of public policy and communications at the National Fair Housing Alliance, said non-English speakers and minorities have been targeted by subprime mortgage brokers. A study by the National Council of La Raza showed that nearly all mortgage advertisements in Spanish-language newspapers were for subprime brokers, Swesnik said.

But Rafael Cebrero, whose company Rancho Grande Real Estate sold Ramirez his home and arranged his mortgage, said subprime loans are getting a bad rap. Those loans, he said, have made it easier for many people, including Latinos, to purchase a home.

So how did Ramirez, the strawberry picker with an annual income of just $14,000, purchase a $720,000 home in Hollister without any money down?

He had help, for one thing. Although Alberto Ramirez was the only one to sign the purchase agreement and the only one named on the loan documents, he actually bought the house with his wife Rosa Ramirez, as well as their friends Jesus Martinez and his wife. However, even in a good month, the Ramirezes and Martinezes together don't earn much more than a combined $6,500, and their official monthly payments were around $5,200.

Karl Skow, president of the Greater Monterey Bay Area Chapter of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, said that as a rule of thumb, people shouldn't pay more than one-third of their income for their housing. In California, where homes are more expensive, that's a little unrealistic, Skow said, but he said most lenders still draw the line at 50 percent.

With their combined incomes, the Ramirezes and the Martinezes estimated that they could afford monthly payments of $3,000 - around 50 percent of their income. However, the Ramirezes said Rancho Grande real estate agent Maria Avila promised they could refinance their home in three to six months to an affordable rate; until then, Rosa Ramirez said, Avila said she would pay for whatever they couldn't afford.

Avila did supplement the mortgage payments on the Hollister home, paying about $2,200 per month for nine months.

But the refinance never happened, and Martinez said Avila stopped helping with the payments at the end of 2006. A notice of default has been filed on the home, but no foreclosure date has been set, and the Ramirezes and the Martinezes are hoping they can sell the house before they lose it in a repossession.

I'm trying very, very hard to imagine how a subprime mortgage lender that wasn't completely out of his mind approved this loan.

And what was the real estate agent thinking, agreeing to subsidize the loan payments for that long? That's $19,800 that she kicked in--almost half of the entire 6.5% typical commission on the sale of a $720,000 house.

I'm not thrilled that the buyers did something this stupid--but I am having a hard time seeing them as eyes open, fully aware consumers. Even a fair number of college graduates don't fully understand mortgages, interest rates, and the like. And this guy picks strawberries for a living, and needs an interpreter to talk to a reporter.

This Rafael Cebrero, who thought that he was doing someone a favor by helping them in over their head on a mortgage, of course, phrases it in terms of helping Latinos get their first house. And helping them get their first really, really bad item on their credit report: a foreclosure.

For Those Who Believe In Cultural Relativism

For Those Who Believe In Cultural Relativism

This will certainly encourage you to feel comfortable with that position. From the February 11, 2009 Daily Mail:

A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.

The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.

He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.

She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.

According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah.

He ruled she had committed adultery - despite not even being married - and handed down a year's prison sentence, which she will serve in a prison just outside the city.

She is still pregnant and will be flogged once she has had the child.

I expect to see cultural relativists linking to my whining and saying, "Well, gang rape happens in America too! There's no real difference!" The difference is that we don't send the victim to prison.

There are real cultural differences--and some cultures are inferior to others.