Thursday, April 27, 2006

So Sick of Fundies

I am so ever living sick of your "typical" Christian Fundamentalist. I got another stupid rasict forward about how immigrants need to conform to America, and accept God because our country, and our culture is based on God. Below is the HUGE rant I sent (which I probably shouldn't have since it was my GF's mother that sent the letter, but wahtever, I know I've told them and my GF has re-iterated, that I'm not religious at ALL, so don't forward that shit to me and I won't respond by shattering your fragile little Jesus world)

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BEGIN RANT

Actually just to correct some factual errors in this email:

1.) The country was founded by Diests, not Christians. They believed in A God & Higher Power, just not necessarily the Christian god. Specifically:

- Thomas Jefferson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_jefferson#Religious_views)
- Ben Franklin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin#Religious_beliefs)
- John Adams
- Thomas Paine
- James Madison

2.) The US Declaration of Independance & Constitution are extensively based upon the political and social philosophy known as "Social Contract Theory" which specifically enumerates the obligations a government has to its citizens. The single biggest writer at the time espousing this view point was John Locke, a Unitarian, who in his "2nd Treatise on Government" specifically argued that all men had the rights to "life, liberty & property" (sound familiar?). This theory was of course an extension of the thoughs put forward by Plato in "The Republic" which predates Christianity by 390 years or so.

3.) The United States as NO official language. No where in ANY US law is it stipulated that all business must be conducted in English. Until that time, English is simply the de facto national language because it's the one spoken by the majority. Specifically in the 2000 census, it was recorded that 1 in 5 people live in a non-english speaking household. Multi-culturalism

4.) There is NO war on Christmas. The very idiot who railed about this (Bill O'reily) had on his OWN website "Season's Greetings".

First of all to say there is a "war" on a freakin holiday simply because people are asked to be POLITE (not politically correct) by using the term Season's Greetings, is an insult to the millions of people who have died, been maimed, or lost their homes in a REAL war.

Having someone say "Season's Greetings" isn't political correctness it's simply being polite. If you know nothing about me, what religion I belong to, or even IF I believe in a religion, then it is a nice way of recognizing whatever winter event I might celebrate (Hannakah, Ramadan, Sahaim, etc).

Secondly, what other religion has their most sacred day as a NATIONAL holiday? Do we all get off Yom Kippor, the Summer Solstice, Ramadan, or any other religion's holiday off? NO. Only Christians are the ones that are so "blessed"

4.) "In God We Trust" wasn't added to the US Coin Currency until 1864 during the Civil War, almost 100 years after our country was founded. In addition, it disappeared from currency for almost 55 years from 1883 - 1938.

It wasn't added to paper currency until 1956, the same year it became the country's motto, replacing "E Pluibus Unum" (out of many we are one)

5.) Another justification that has tranditionally been used, but wasn't present in this "article" was "under god" being in the pledge of allegence. But that phrase wasn't added until 1954, spurred on by the Knight of Columbus (a Catholic Fraternal organization).

It's important to remember that all of this "God"-ifying was happening at the time of the Red Scare and Joe McCarthy's Anti-American hearings (summer of 1954) where we were fighting the "godless" communists.

6.) Around 43% of the US classifies themself as either "spiritual but not religious" or "neither spiritual nor religious" (2002 USA/Gallup Poll). The US culture is NOT one of God. This is NEVER what America has stood for.

Instead America was founded and people have fought and DIED for the ability for us to have WHATEVER views we want on whatever subject. To say that if we don't accept "God" that we should leave the country is to be ignorant and disrespectful to everyone who has given their life to protect the freedoms outlined in our constitution.

7.) Instead of "Christians" worrying about fictional wars on Christmas, or of gay people being able to marry or raise kids, or any ways they'd like to restrict other peoples rights so that we're forced to live by their moral codes, perhaps they should go and read the New Testament again and start living like Jesus preached to them that they should:

- Feed the Hungry
- Clothe the poor
- Build houses for the homeless
- Protect the weak

You know what, I'll start listening to Christians on how I should live my life, once they step up to the plate and feed, clothe, shelter and care for every homeless CHILD in America. I'm not even saying that have to solve it worldwide, or even all of the adults, lets simply take care of those who are too weak to help themselves. If they do that, then they can come and lecture to me about working on Sundays, or drinking alcohol, or having premartial sex, or whatever else their Dogma says I'll go to hell for.

Until then, they're simply hypocrites trying to make the laws of this country adhere to their faith, and there's another group that has that same mission....the Illotlahs in Iran. Maybe they should get together.

If you don't want to hear this type of crap from me in the future, then don't send me stuff that will provoke this response.

END RANT
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Housing Market

This is a comment I left over at The Massachusetts Housing Market

Dave's 10 Ten List on Why Housing Will Crash:

1.) Massachussetts unemployment is higher than the national average. We lost something like 2 million jobs after the DotCom crash and we're still haven't gained all of those back.

2.) Massachussetts is one of the two WORST states for losing population (the other being NY). The majority of that population is in the 25-35 demographic, i.e. your typical first time buyers. Just wait until the retirement boom happens and all the grey hairs leave for Florida, South Carolina and Arizona. We'll be hemmoraging population at that point.

3.) ~6 months of inventory is considers a "balanced" market. A "buyers" market is considered around ~7-8 months of inventory. Over the last couple of years Mass has been at ~4-5 months of inventory. It should be EXTREMELY worrisome that we're approaching ~11.5 months of inventory. This isn't just a buyer's market, this is a bloodbath waiting to happen.

4.) We're already one of the highest places to live only behind CA & NY. Estimates put the current housing market at 20-30% overvalued.

5.) Housing markets have typically been "affordable" historically when cost of a house is 3x annual income. Massachussetts is sitting at 5.5-6 times annual income currently.

6.) Market fundamentals for the housing industry is the rental ratio, i.e. if you had to rent it out what could you get versus what your mortage is. In a "sound" market a house should be worth around 10 times what it can rent for a month. Current market prices are well over 20 times what a place could rent out for. Prices are no longer tied to market fundamentals but to speculation about future returns. Sound familiar? This is the same exact thing that happened with the stock market bubble when prices got divorced from P/E ratios and were based on "future earnings".

7.) Incomes have been flat for the past 3 years.

8.) Foreclosures in Massachussetts have shot up over 100% in the last two years.

9.) The buying frenzy was supported by historically low intrest rates, and exotic mortages (ARMs, 0% down, no document loans, etc). The majority of these loans are set to adjust in the next two years (a couple billion this year, and $1.7 TRILLION next year). The adjustments on these loans are likely to mean thousands of dollar differences in mortage payments.

10.) The REAL year over year price declines for SFH have come at a time when the Real Estate industry was claiming that real estate NEVER goes down in value, and that it's a solid investment.

These are FACTS, there is no "truthiness" behind the fact that prices are in decline.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Random Thought While Waiting For the Bus

Do you think motorcycle cops make fun of bike cops?

Monday, April 24, 2006

Bad Start to the Day

Is there any worse start to a day then walking out of your house and just missing the bus, not once, not twice, but three times?

Admittedly I was pushing it by trying to make the first one, as the bus usually shows up 3 minutes or so after it leaves Oak Square, and it was a good 7 or 8 minutes past when I walked out the door.

So I went inside, logged into work, and started sending out some emails when I suddenly notice it's a couple of minutes after the bus should show, I grab my bag and dash out the door, get halfway down the steps and see the bus is already down under the bridge.

So I go back inside and log back in and run some tests, when again I notice that it's very close to time for the bus to leave, another dash out the door, and this time I get all the way to the bottom of our steps and I notice the bus at the corner (about 20 feet away from me). I wave my hand as I start to run towards it, but the bus driver wasn't looking and it took off down the street.

Luckily for me I watched the clock alot closer and was able to get out there in time for the bus the fourth time.

While on the bus, I saw one of the regulars get on the bus. Now this kid is a "cool" kid, always with the sunglasses on, the leather jacket, and the 100% slicked hair. I mean Pat Riley slicked. You could use this hair to stop bullets kinda of hard. Now this morning, this kid must have been running late too, because there was a HUGE gob of hair gel in one section of his hair. I mean "Something About Mary" hairgel kinda of incident. So much so that my mind immediately flashes with the thought to say something completely inappropriate like "Running late because you had to service a guy this morning huh?", but wisely I refrain. Now, this guy gets on 4 stops after me, and there's another 20 minutes or so of bus ride left until we get to Central Square. So I'm sitting there for 20 minutes wondering, what's the proper protocol for a situation like this. This guy and I have ridden the bus together semi-regularly for like 3 months, but in that time we've never talked, heck we've never even exchanged the typical man grunt, and imperceptable head nod greeting. So it's not like I can be like "um dude, you got a gob of gel in your hair". But at the same time this guy is gonna be hella embarrassed when he tries to mack of some hottie at school, and she laughs at him. Ultimately I decided the best course of action was inaction, mainly because I hate talking to people, and I figured it was a small form of justice for all the nerds to let the "cool" kid get knocked down a peg.