patrick.net

DennisN - that's an interesting and valid way of looking at it. Imagine our country as being run by and for the banks, which is not hard since it's true.

Then imagine every way to get a person into lifetime slavery for the banks being pushed as a Good Thing.

40+ years ago people paid mortgages OFF and had a party where they burned the note.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 22 of the 94 foreign-born nationals convicted or indicted on terror charges from 1993 to 2004 were in the U.S. on student visas. Many were visiting here from Saudi Arabia, one of 34 predominantly Muslim states Homeland Security lists as "countries of interest for terrorism."

Yet in a little-noticed 2005 deal struck between President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah, 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. Abdullah promises the new wave of Saudi students will be on their best behavior and allay our suspicions.

Brothers keeping phones to selves during tiger case
Police want to examine text messages, photos from day of fatal mauling
By Linda Goldston
MEDIANEWS STAFF

Article Launched: 01/05/2008 03:02:08 AM PST

Two San Jose brothers mauled by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day have refused to allow police to examine their cell phones for possible text messages or photos believed to be taken the day of a tiger's escape.
In a letter sent Friday to the brothers' attorney, celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera asked that Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal preserve "this potentially critical evidence."

"The digital content of your clients' cell phones, which we understand are currently in the possession of the police, may help reconstruct what happened at the tiger exhibit and cafe," Herrera wrote.

Geragos did not return a phone call from MediaNews.

He said earlier this week that news reports of his clients taunting Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, before she escaped from her grotto were not true. A friend of the Dhaliwals', Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, of San Jose, was fatally mauled when the tiger escaped.

Sousa had tried to distract the tiger when she attacked one of the brothers. After Sousa was fatally mauled, the brothers ran to the zoo cafe, near where police shot and killed the tiger.

===========

Conclusion:

Mix of Indian Punjabi and Mexican youth is a deadly cocktail of STUPIDITY

The word for today is 'juxtapositions', skillfully used by Skibum.

Mix of Indian Punjabi and Mexican youth is a deadly cocktail of STUPIDITY

Even if you are not serious, it is not that funny as a joke. Besides, there's no indication that Sousa did anything wrong.

There are many witnesses saying the wogs were taunting the tiger and the tiger attacked only them.

maybe Indian food is too spicy for tigers, either that or they just simply prefer chimichangas. I think real tragedy here is the shooting of the tiger. Wow, you're fucking kidding me, if you taunt a tiger it will track you down and kill you? Who fucking knew. As far as I am concerned the SF bay area needs more tiger maulings, not less.

Sure, I'm sure no one ever taunts any animals in zoos before. The one time I was in the SF Zoo, it looked like a pretty sad place and seemed poorly run.

As for the taunting argument, a few years ago a disabled child fell out of a roller coaster and died in Great America and they found no fault on behalf of the amusement park. The bottom line is, tigers should not be able to leap out of the pen, same goes of amusement parks letting riders fall off.

What if the retarded child fell out of the roller coaster into the tiger pen?

The one time I was in the SF Zoo, it looked like a pretty sad place and seemed poorly run.

maybe it's a scam to tear it down and build loft condos?

There is only one way to make money very fast, very easily, through monopoly. Microsoft proved this point, but at least Microsoft represented an emerging industry that changed the world. Many people don't realize that Wall Street is a part of a MONOPOLY. The right to print money, control flow and velocity of money is the ultimate monopoly power in human society. However, you cannot just apply the lever without an excuse, so you need packaging - telling a convincing story. The story of the century is, housing value will always go up, and it is the safest investment.

The flippers, mortgage bankers, builders are actually all small fish who take up more risk for less reward. They actually have to DO something. The highest rank in the food chain are the MBS packager who sliced and diced the product, and take hundreds of millions of commission in selling it, RISK FREE. Yeah, things blow up in the end but they have already sheltered their stolen wealth in some offshore accounts.

So if you look at the big picture, nobody in the entire housing value chain has any near-monopolistic power except for the one at the top controlling the economic lever i.e. interest rate along with the Fed. That also explains why Wall Street have been able to make record bonus in the last few years while the economy was barely hobbling along, if you strip away all the stupid hooplas and adjust growth for real inflation.

I recall reading a story years ago about a cannibal chief in Africa talking about human cuisine. IIRC he said that the thighs were the best part and that white people were too salty.

Suffer-ecchs - Yep feed 'em all to the tigers as far as I'm concerned, it's good for the environment!

DennisN - and now they're getting a chance again to get 'em eating each other again...... maybe if you shoot one African the others just crowd in and eat 'im lol.

My brother taunted a caged ape when we were kids. I have never seen an animal so pissed, and you could tell it was personal. If that thing had gotten out it would have gone straight for him. Animals have pride. I inadvertantly pissed a normally very friendly cockatoo off because it bobbed its head at me, and I bobbed mine back. A year later that bird recognized me and hated me. Animals are smarter than we think. Tigers used to conduct almost organized raids on Indian villages. Some estimates were that hundreds of thousands of Indians died during the 1800s. They now fear people and seem to pass the knowledge onto their cubs.

In any case the SF incident is a strict liability negligence case because, although distasteful, people taunting an animal doesn't relieve an animal owner of their legal responsibility for damages caused by the animal. Someone can go to the zoo and have a reasonable expectation that a tiger can't jump out of the exhibit.

Yes it sucks that the tiger was taunted. It seems every day they're discovering animals are smarter and more self-aware than supposed.

I was at the San Diego zoo watching the bonobos, and apparently the bonobo "word" for "fuck you" is to shake the hand in a certain way, like you're shaking shit off of it. Well, a little (human) kid saw this gesture used and used it to one of the elder female bonobos of the bunch, and the elder female rapped the Plexiglas the kid was near, hard. Lesson learned. You don't go flipping the finger at people - or bonobos - for the hell of it. It was pretty funny and I'm not sure how many other humans saw what was going on.

I've also met an orange cat that hated me on sight. It didn't make sense, that cat didn't even know me! And cats generally like me. But apparently I reminded that cat of someone who was a real bastard to it. I tried to make friends, but I could tell it would be a long hard road, and probably never really happen. This when I had the other cats in the place checking in with me for their daily pet.

Yes, though, the situation at the zoo is a case of negligence, hell it seems half the zoo owners in this country have had no idea how tall their fences are.

Malcolm - and now that the tigers have been hunted almost all away, here we are, knee deep in Indians! I tell you, there needs to be a tiger repopulation program to restore Nature's balance and trim down the Indian population.

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"