patrick.net

Not to sound like a fundamentalist purist, but it’s funny to me how much of Christian and Catholic tradition seems indeed pagan and or idolatric (is that a word?) in nature

Another thing that gets me with all these recent stories of supposedly pious Christian people praying to St. Joseph to deliver them a Greater Fool to overpay for their mis-priced properties: Is screwing over a complete stranger a "Christian" thing to do? Is praying for material gain at someone else's expense a virtue? I'll admit it's been many years since I've been to Sunday school, but I must say I don't remember being taught THAT particular commandment.

Is screwing over a complete stranger a “Christian” thing to do?

Perhaps it is a pagan thing to do. I wonder if they will resort to human sacrafice if their homes do not get sold.

You have to really want to be enlightened to seek the truth no matter what you are told. I stumbled across this site about three months ago but even before that I knew the numbers weren't kosher. Everything had skyrocketed in a very short time not just housing...

Now that we are at the brink of some severe economic corrections it will reverse. Today oil is at 71 and I see it going lower did anyone notice how gas has come down alot this past week? It's $2.61 in South Carolina. It's greed pure and simple unchecked and condoned by our free markets. Because most don't understand how the markets work we simple accept the price increases instead of askig for justification.

They say "supply and demand" Blah Blah Blah. What happpened in just a years time? It's all bullshit... Super wealth for the few at the exspense of the masses. The best thing one can do is have mostly cash, gold, and live very cheaply until this catastrophe is over. Oh and pray....

There are bad areas in Atherton, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto.
Even Sunnyvale, one of the “safest” cities in the US, does not look that safe.

Perhaps looks can be deceiving? For that matter, there are parts of San Rafael, Fairfax, Novato, and Mill Valley that look somewhat seedy to me. But if I lived there, I might have a much different impression. Unfamiliar settings tend to make me cautious.

Increasingly Americans are confusing Jesus with Santa. Between burying statues and Prosperity Christianity and Cheap Grace you can justify anything, as long as you mention that you have accepted Jesus as your personal savior.

Ahhh... that explains this: http://www.prayerofjabez.com/BreakthroughPages/JabezPage.html

Perhaps looks can be deceiving?

But unfamiliar places like Victoria, BC look nice and safe.

SF Woman,
RE patron saints, if St. Joe is truly the patron saint against doubt, this board's patron saint should be the anti-Joe, given our contrarian nature. Would the disciple Thomas of doubting Thomas fame be appropriate?

Maybe we should all read this:

http://www.catholiccompany.com/product_detail.cfm?ID=3837

I can't believe there's a book called "Catholicism for Dummies."

"Increasingly Americans are confusing Jesus with Santa"

Lord, I know you're a really busy guy but we're in way over our heads and getting behind on our payments. Don't get me wrong, we're not greedy here. We just want things to go back to the way they used to be. You know Lord, when we could re-fi every 9 months and take out big fat stacks of cash? Is that so much to ask? Well since the "lenders" have cut us of could you please see your way to finding us just ONE GF to take over our payments (and give us a little "walking around" money besides?)

Amen.

"we're throwing our money away renting"

God I love that line! That tired, dog eared abusive line!

Let's look for just a minute all the floppers that are now offering vacant property For Sale, For Rent or of late "lease w/option 2 BUY!"

Even if they are lucky enough to have renters they are certainly not having anywheres near their PITI covered!

So I ask you, who's "throwing their money away?"

But unfamiliar places like Victoria, BC look nice and safe.

Well, yeah--that's one of those tidy tourist towns I regularly visited as a kid.
Victoria's storefronts and hanging flower baskets are nice. Carmel or Tiburon are like that too--but alas more expensive. Same goes for some smaller European cities.

Still, I know what you're driving at. I think of places where due to high living costs, lower wage earners live a desperate existence. I don't like that about big, overpriced metro areas. Personally, I'd prefer to live in a modest town with a stable middle class, than a "status" area with huge income disparities.

Personally, I’d prefer to live in a modest town with a stable middle class, than a “status” area with huge income disparities.

Very true. I love Scandinavian cities in the summer. I can walk at night alone! I like the feel of Lucerne a lot.

I cannot stand Rome. We practically had to scan for insurgents, I mean pickpockets all the time. Paris is fine, but it is still quite scary.

Lucerne, Switzerland. Not Scandinavian though. Stockholm is nice too, but it has a different feel.

Lucerne, Switzerland. Not Scandinavian though. Stockholm is nice too, but it has a different feel.

Luzern is pretty--if you can deal with shrieking American tourists 24/7. (I lived in Zürich for a spell myself, which is "safe", but rather boring). Perhaps Zug, the upscale tax-dodging enclave, or Chateau D'Oex, Gstaad, Montreux (too many Brits though), Gruyere (fondue!), or even Basel for a German/French/Swiss mix.

I bet Stockholm is more interesting than anywhere in CH. Amsterdam too--and I'd take the good w/bad. Bergen, Norway is also very picturesque, but as much as I like the cold, I couldn't handle winters there.

Has anyone seen the movie "Hostel"?

The one about the American backpackers in former Soviet block nations? If Peter P rents it not only will he not leave the country, he won't leave his house!

Yeah, the urban apologists surely suffered a setback here in the US with the Paris suburban riots. Suddenly the “emulate Europe” credo lost appeal.

I heard somebody was murdered in NYC last week too. We better all run off to live on Cote's farm.

"Bergen, Norway is also very picturesque, but as much as I like the cold, I couldn’t handle winters there."

Really? Even with the Gulf stream and all that?

I have never been to Amsterdam when it wasn’t 55 degrees and raining.

Yes, even my Dutch friends complain about the weather there. Switzerland is dark enough in the winter; I cannot imagine Norway in the dark months...I'd go crazy. Another worthy option would be sunny, south Switzerland such as Lugano. More cultural diversity than the rather staid German quarter.

DinOR,

Well how “sticky” is using white-out?

It's certainly cheap and lazy. Maybe she blew her budget on the glossy.

" Yeah, the urban apologists surely suffered a setback here in the US with the Paris suburban riots. Suddenly the “emulate Europe” credo lost appeal."

Huh? I thought that was a warning to stay out of sketchy suburbs and exurbs, especially once the section 8 people start to move in.

I would like to spend a winter in Tromso. I figure I'd either kill myself by April or reach some sort of heightened mental state.

Robert Cote'

Yeah, the urban apologists surely suffered a setback

"Urban Apologists". That's a new one for me.

Do you agree that urban centers ever served a utilitarian function historically?

Or follow La Rosey’s lead and do Gstaad durning the ski season and Rolle the rest of the year?

Oh I bet...those towns on L. Geneva are very nice (pricey too!)
I should really get back there and refresh my memory.
Uh...maybe when I get a new job! :)

My marginally Catholic boyfriend knows less about Catholic saints than atheist me. So I wonder if the American Catholic church even bother to teach about the saints anymore.

SFWoman-
I've heard that about Reykjavik too--a lively music/cultural scene. I wouldn't have guessed, but creds to them for carving out a comfortable existence there. There's an example for all of us. I people can make a half-frozen sub-arctic island a nice place to live, we can do the same with the US.

"I people can make a half-frozen sub-arctic island a nice place to live, we can do the same with the US."

Their winters are actually less harsh than the winters in Buffalo, NY and they heat their homes geothermically, so heating oil prices are not concerns.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USNY0181?from=month_bottomnav_business

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/ICXX0002?from=month_bottomnav_business

The ARM from HELLoc!

...busting through the floorboards, its fingers tightening around the neck of a sleeping FB'er.

Paris is scary? You are very easily frightened. The suburbs of Paris can be scary at night, but the city is extremely safe.

The restaurants are nice indeed. But the subway can be scary at night.

Amsterdam too–and I’d take the good w/bad.

Amsterdam is too interesting for me. I like places that are boring enough to keep out weird people. :)

The one about the American backpackers in former Soviet block nations? If Peter P rents it not only will he not leave the country, he won’t leave his house!

I heard that Prague is pretty nice though. I will never go backpacking.

Robert Cote'

Thanks for clarifying. I suspected your position would be rational and logical. You thankfully separate yourself from the revisionists who'd have us believe that previous to cities everyone lived in some sort of state of communal agricultural bliss.

"the revisionists who’d have us believe that previous to cities everyone lived in some sort of state of communal agricultural bliss."

What what? So I'm the only one here who believes humanity made a mistake when it climbed down from trees.

I can't belive we haven't had a shout out yet for the one and only St Jude:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Jude

patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations.

I nominate a picture of him should be given to all FBs with a house on the market for longer than 99 days...or more than 200% over the last sale price.

Gosh, the subject turns to religion and irrational faith in unseen forces and all of a sudden the peakenese and global warmists

Not to open another can o'worms here, Robert, but recognition that we may someday run out of oil and/or that global temperatures have slowly, steadily been climbing does not automatically make you a tin-foil hat-wearing Chicken Little conspiracist. The important questions to me are: (a) do we have something to replace oil when the time comes? and (b) is recent global warming mostly due to anthropogenic causes or just part of a long-term natural cycle?

Cheer up, Pazuzu, all is not lost my friend! At least you have "saved" yourself and your own family from financial ruin. This is something in which to rejoice, not lament.

I too have been remarkably unsuccessful in dissuading family & friends from jumping off that option-ARM cliff. Even so, what matters in the end is not so much how many FBs we converted, but that we tried and that our hearts were in the right place.

Thanks to recent events and the changing tone of FB news stories, I've noticed my bearish opinions are more socially acceptable around the office. I'm not as easily dismissed as the social pariah/Cassandra I was considered to be last year. In time, I may even be as popular as the floppers of 2005. :-)

global warmists

Dieses thread ist das IST thread. lol.

Myself, I'm more of a empiricaldataanalystdubiousofpiratetotemperaturecorrelationsist.

Randy,

In your investigation of pirates to global climate change, did you take into account the presence of space pirates? You know, the ones made of out anti-matter and dressed like accountants.

Pazuzu, just be glad you're not his kid and won't have to suffer the subsequent life long trauma of it all.

empiricaldataanalystdubiousofpiratetotemperaturecorrelationsist

Data is not almighty. It often distracts us from the big picture.

More on pirates and global warming:

http://www.venganza.org/

Scroll down to the chart...

Thanks Zephyr. I'm glad my obscure reference didn't go unappreciated.