Inherit the wind

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.”

— Hosea 8:7

Nevada

“Clark County is where three quarters of Nevada’s residents and live and where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s son Rory is a county commissioner.” That means that Harry Reid’s son is the person in charge of overseeing the election machines that are being maintained by the SEIU. Now, why would Rory Reid be suspected of any shenanigans here? But he is. “Since early voting started, there have been credible reports that voting machines in Clark County, Nevada are automatically checking Harry Reid’s name on the ballot.”

— Mark Hemingway, Washington Examiner

Spain

Manolo Marbán, 59, is still living in his house in Toledo and going to work in the small pink-and-aqua pet grooming shop he bought here in 2006, when he got swept up in Spain’s giddy real estate boom.

But Mr. Marbán does not own either anymore. The bank foreclosed on both properties last April, and he is waiting for the courts to issue the eviction notices. For many Americans facing foreclosure, that would be the end of it. But for Mr. Marbán and thousands of others here, it is just the beginning of their troubles. When the gavel falls on his case, he will still owe the bank more than $140,000. “I will be working for the bank for the rest of my life,” Mr. Marbán said recently, tears welling in his eyes. “I will never own anything — not even a car.”

The real estate and banking excesses in Spain were a lot like those in the United States. Construction boomed, prices rose at an astonishing pace and banks gave out loans just as fast, often to customers like Mr. Marbán, who used the equity in his house to finance a mortgage for his shop. But those days are over. Spain now has the highest unemployment rate in the euro zone — 20 percent — and real estate prices are dropping. For many Spaniards, no longer able to pay their mortgages, the fine print in the deals they agreed to years ago is catching up with them.

Not only are Spanish mortgage holders personally liable for the full amount of the loan, but throw in penalty interest charges and tens of thousands of dollars in court fees, and people can end up, like Mr. Marbán, facing a mountain of debt. Bankruptcy is not the answer, either. Mortgage debt is specifically excluded here.

Full story here

Restore Sanity

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert held the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” yesterday in Washington, D.C.

Hopefully, on Tuesday, American voters will actually Restore Sanity all across the land. Put those democrats out of work.

Genetics

Scientists are now claiming that a person’s politics might be ingrained in their genetics. And it has long been said that homosexuality is caused by genetics rather than developmental reasons.

But the same people who make these claims would vigorously deny that genetics has anything to do with intelligence, laziness, criminal tendencies, or athletic ability. To admit that it does would be a serious breach in the monolith called political correctness.

If wife beating is found to be genetic will they get a pass and be considered normal like homosexuals? Murder is genetic? Racism? Religious fundmentalism?

Expect a whole lot of mental gymnastics in the coming years.

Big Bear

Have you noticed? (Careful, you were not supposed to!) Increasingly, China’s relationship to the outside world is not defined by reliance on political-cultural diplomacy. Nor do appeals to allegedly common interests served by cooperation dominate. Of late, regarding the outside world, the ascendant instrument applied to shape these is weight and military force. Some old hopes and pious expectations, such as that economic success civilizes foreign policy and democratizes the internal order, appear to be invalidated. The playful panda is transmuting into an assertive grizzly. The big bear emerging from its cover likes to stroll beyond the limits of its marked territory.

Source

Massachusetts

Beleaguered Bay State and U.S. taxpayers coughed up a staggering $35.7 million this year in free emergency health care for more than 52,000 illegal aliens in Massachusetts, sparking outrage from candidates and critics who back a tougher line on immigration.

The figures — released by Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration under an order for the Secretary of State’s office and after more than a month of ducking questions — show illegal immigrants who belong to MassHealth Limited received $33.8 million in taxpayer-funded in-patient hospital care this year.

They also made 6,160 visits to the state’s overburdened emergency rooms in the fiscal year ending in June for an additional cost of $1.9 million, a Herald analysis shows.

More here

Materialism

“We must not focus our attention exclusively on the material, because although important, it is not the main issue. The economic success of the Western world is a product of its moral philosophy and practice. The economic results are better because the moral philosophy is superior. It is superior because it starts with the individual.”

— Margaret Thatcher

Obituaries

As I grow older I have begun reading obituaries. I don’t remember ever doing such a thing when I was younger unless it was a newspaper story of some famous person who had died.

Now I find them fascinating. Some newspapers print what could be called mini-biographies. I suppose the deceased relatives pay for such long stories. It’s kind of morbid but I enjoy reading about their spouse (or spouses), their children and their children, how far they advanced in life, etc.

It’s hard to determine the cause of death in most of these obituaries because of privacy laws, I suppose. Who would want the world to know that they died of AIDS or syphillis?

What is surprising is the age at which people die. There are a few younger people dying in auto accidents and a few women who most likely died from some form of cancer. But most of the death notices are for people in their seventies and eighties. And it seems that the older the person is…the more likelihood they lived in a rural area.

Breathing the foul air in cities probably factors in here somewhere.

Zecharia Sitchin

This blogger only recently heard that Zecharia Sitchin died on October 9th.

His books are derided by most academics and scientists but he sold more books than any of his critics.

He seemed to be a gentle soul with a thirst for knowledge. And he looked at religion and history in a very different manner. Maybe he’s right, who knows?

I’ve read the first 13 of his books and really enjoyed them.

Wikipedia article here

Sitchin believed that mankind was created in ancient Iraq and that the “Garden of Eden” was situated there. This article might be confirmation of that.