patrick.net

No comment but believe me I am laughing.

Well despite all this hyperbole of how smart animals are, the hairless ape takes the cake, after all, who would have dreamed of 0 down only goes up, carve it up and defraud foreign governments, the apes? no. the great white ape. Remember the boomer mantra folks, less for you equals more for me and of course my fat assed fake titty second/third wife. Fuck you; my toilets cost more than you. I'm thinking of opening up a web 2.0 site, waddling boomer.com

BARenter :
Just curious, what makes you stick to BA?

It's a case of "a known devil is better than an unknown angel" ! To be honest, this is an immigrant friendly area. Every area will have its pluses and minuses which are very subjective. I happen to find more things to like here than dislike.

There are enough chances to find a job that is satisfying - and I was very fortunate to work on some really cool stuff. Things that one dreams while studying Computer Science. You get paid decently at the same time. The salaries are not bad at all if you are willing to rent ;-)

Been here more than 9 years now. Developed a social circle, so that helps. Enough opportunities for day trips around the area. Nice variety of cuisines. Weather is fabulous.

There are things that I am not particularly fond of. But there is no perfect area. So I am OK with those - like the high population density. I am pretty conservative minded so I stay away from Berkley/San Francisco and pretend that they do not exist. ;-)

ex-sunnyvale-renter :
40+ years ago people paid mortgages OFF and had a party where they burned the note.

I wasn't aware of this fact till I started reading bubble blogs. My first reaction was that this must be some joke. But then I googled and wow ! There was a time when people tried to get OUT of debt !! In America ? And even today a minority exists that subscribe to similar philosophy ?

I felt like I found my support group.

# PermaRenter Says:
Do you understand that mortgage is a form of taxation which is privatized. Basically the name of the game is to provide government tax breaks so that more and more people pay this kind of privatized tax to banks ….

That's an interesting way to put it. The net result of MID is exactly opposite of affordable housing and ends up making the bankers rich.

But there is a way of playing the game that increases your odds. Use the debt when you don't really need it. As Randy H has explained nicely, there is an implicit call option. Even if you have enough money to buy using outright cash, you can still take the loan, claim tax deduction. If your return on your investments made using the cash is not turning out to be enough, simply prepay the loan.

This kind of works even when you cannot buy using outright cash. When interest rates are this low, use as little down payment as the lender allows, see if interest arbitrage works for you. Of course, there is a risk involved - that your investments may not return more than the interest.

* NOT ADVICE OF ANY SORT

Bap33,
"Wog" is an old and very generic British Empire slur for non-Brit subjects of said empire. The old saying among upper-crust Brits was that "the wogs begin at Calais".

Stuck,
You've heard about the "biological clock"? Years ago people had a "retirement clock" in which they raced to pay off the mortgage so that they could retire. You don't need that much income in retirement if your kids are through college and your mortgage is paid off.

My San Jose house was bought in 1981 and the mortgage was re-fi'ed several times for various reasons. But I still paid it off in only 22 years in 2003.

My family started moving into northern California at least by 1862 - that's the earliest date of which I have paper documentation, although several ancestors may have arrived earlier. Life in the BA has gotten progressively worse over the last 150 years. Early on my ancestors really didn't have to work that hard to live a good life, but the last 3 generations have lived progressively poorer yet had to work harder and longer hours.

>> That’s an interesting way to put it. The net result of MID is exactly opposite of affordable housing and ends up making the bankers rich.

Architecht of this SCAM is Bill Clinton. I am very happy that Democrats are not in power for last year. God knows what they would have done with housing bubble.

====

The Clinton Housing Bubble
By Vernon L. Smith
Word Count: 753
The joint housing and mortgage-market crisis once again reminds us that all financial implosions stem from the same cause: borrowing short and lending long without enough equity to weather periodic storms in the gap between.

But this bubble was different. Besides being fueled by housing purchases and repackaged loans, each with inadequate equity -- doubling down with other people's money -- at the end of the capital-gains rainbow was the right to take up to $500,000 of profit, tax free.

Thank you President Bill Clinton for your 1997 action, applauded by the banks, the realtors and all citizens in search ...

I am very happy that Democrats are not in power for last EIGHT years

>> Life in the BA has gotten progressively worse over the last 150 years.

This is the direct result of irresponsible US immigration policy. Basically rich people need more warm bodies to multiply their money with high transaction velocity. For example Chindians waste their whole life chasing shit boxes in bay area ....

Yep crowd the place with the 3rd world's teeming millions, and their diseases....

DennisN - Yep it's a generic term for well ..... Carlos Hathcock called 'em Homer Hamburger or Homer Hotdog, over in Iraq they're Hajis, whatever word works for those you know will, when the time comes be ...... targets.

ex-sunnyvale-renter Says:
The thing with the BA is, to afford to live there you have to work such long hours that you never get to go anywhere or do anything. It’s just work work work all the time.

The people working like that may be actually those who _cannot_ afford to live here. It also depends on where you work - some places are worse than others, but most large companies actually cut you a lot of slack. Maybe it is worse here because the majority of people work at sweatshop startups.

Also, time spent online (such as here) is our equivalent of "whittlin' on the front porch" - just because someone is online doesn't mean they're working.

SP - but the people who are making a LOT are still spending beyond their means, buying those 2nd houses, buying that 3rd trophy wife, and the mercedes to cart her around in.

It's a workaholic culture.

Interestingly, I think it's possible to live there without being a workaholic, but you have to change your life in significant and Un-American ways.

Nice paper for code monkeys

The Facts of Work: Living with Power and Politics

http://www.agile2007.org/agile2007/downloads/presentations/The_Facts_of_Work_Power_and_Politics_417.pdf

ex-sunnyvale-renter Says:
January 6th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
"Interestingly, I think it’s possible to live there without being a workaholic, but you have to change your life in significant and Un-American ways."

San Diego is similar and people seem to live the same way, work to live. So much of it has to do with where you put your resources. I can't understand basic decisions people make, like these stupid timeshares and land deals. If you take the same amount that you would buy a timeshare for and put it in a bank, you can basically go anywhere in the world for 2 weeks just on the interest. The monthly maintenance fees alone pay for a couple of nights. Instead of a solar electric system boomers will choose to make payments on an RV. You become independent when you recognize saving monthly overhead as income instead of trying to buy yourself to wealth; it has always been easier for me to save or invest myself to prosperity. There is a fundamental understanding that is lacking from our culture. I think it is by design because if it was really taught properly the economy would change.

>> I think it is by design because if it was really taught properly the economy would change.

I am rephrasing your sentence as follows:

I think it is by design because if it was really taught properly the economy would collapse.

To understand why, please watch the following video:

Money As Debt 47 min - Feb 12, 2007
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

I saw a trailer for a show relating to Russians trying to make an army out of savage apes. I looked at my girl and we laughed when I said "Don't they know what could happen if these monkeys got out of control? Didn't they ever watch Planet of the Apes."

Don't the words "Get your hands off of me, you damned, dirty ape" mean anything to them?

21,000 young Saudi men will gain U.S. student visas by 2009. The program is supposed to heal the wound left by the 15 Saudi hijackers by promoting cultural exchange and understanding.

No women?

Headset - only way to heal that wound is to send 'em on a cruise ship out to the middle of nowhere then sink it. Be sure to chum the water first!

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay! The sharks had lunch today!

Ex-sunny,

True vengeance would be that instead wasting resources with war, the citizens and gov of the USA pu that effort toward oil independence through research and conservation. Then we can get out of the mideast completely and let them all rot in their religious idiocies.

Exactly. Declare the US a Muslim-Free Zone, make it that way and keep it that way.

Malcolm Says:
Tigers used to conduct almost organized raids on Indian villages.

Tigers are solitary animals and do not normally attack humans unless provoked. Organized raids on villages seems a little far fetched. A tiger that is wounded and cannot hunt its normal prey will try to grab a goat or some other livestock - which brings it in close contact with humans. Once it figures out we are all bark and no bite, that is when it turns into a maneater.

Lionesses, on the other hand, hunt in packs. There are records of a pride of fifteen lionesses repeatedly attacking a village in Tanganyika in the early 20th cent. Perhaps that is what you got mixed up with tigers.

Not bwana advice.

Nope, and I never claimed to be an expert. I was just relaying what I saw on the Discovery channel.

http://www.netribution.co.uk/2/content/view/162/277/

"CHAMPAWAT MANEATER
Of all the sub-species of tiger, India's Bengal tiger has gained the worst reputation as a man-eater. Although it is an increasingly rare animal, it was once relatively common all over India. It is said that "at one time, in parts of India, at the beginning of the 19th century, man-eaters were so prevalent that it seemed to be a question of whether man or tiger would survive." Villagers took precautions against attack . Every night, fires encircled the villages. Native people only ever travelled in large groups, fully armed and beating drums to scare away any big cats.

In the 1930s tigers killed between 1,000 and 1,600 people each year, creating terror among the human population. One famous tigress known as Champawat killed some 200 men and women before being driven out of Nepal. She moved to another location, this time in India, and continued to kill bringing her total up to 436 before she was finally tracked down and killed by Jim Corbett in 1937"