Saturday, June 16, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
A pretty rough appraisal of President Obama...and true
By Matt Patterson (columnist)
Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, the result of a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job? Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present"); and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions.
He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as a legislator. And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president?
Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal: To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass. Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass - held to a lower standard - because of the color of his skin.
Podhoretz continues: And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?
Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon -affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white liberals, feel good about themselves.
Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action. Yes, racist. Holding someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin - that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is.
And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough forthe US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois ; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.
What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks? In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people - conservatives included - ought now to be deeply embarrassed.
The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of cliches, and that's when he has his Teleprompters in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all.
Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth – it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years.
And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence.
But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?
In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job.
When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office.
Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, the result of a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job? Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present"); and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions.
He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as a legislator. And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president?
Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal: To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass. Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass - held to a lower standard - because of the color of his skin.
Podhoretz continues: And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?
Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon -affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white liberals, feel good about themselves.
Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action. Yes, racist. Holding someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin - that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is.
And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough forthe US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois ; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.
What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks? In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people - conservatives included - ought now to be deeply embarrassed.
The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of cliches, and that's when he has his Teleprompters in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all.
Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth – it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years.
And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence.
But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?
In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job.
When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office.
How NOT to do marketing
Seven marketing sins
Impatient... great marketing takes time. Doing it wrong (and rushed) ten times costs much more and takes longer than doing it slowly, but right, over the same period of time.
Selfish... we have a choice, and if we sense that this is all about you, not us, our choice will be to go somewhere else.
Self-absorbed... you don't buy from you, others buy from you. They don't care about your business and your troubles nearly as much as you do.
Deceitful... see selfish, above. If you don't tell us the truth, it's probably because you're selfish. How urgent can your needs be that you would sacrifice your future to get something now?
Inconsistent... we're not paying that much attention, but when we do, it helps if you are similar to the voice we heard from last time.
Angry... at us? Why are you angry at us? It's not something we want to be part of, thanks.
Jealous... is someone doing better than you? Of course they are. There's always someone doing better than you. But if you let your jealousy change your products or your attitude or your story, we're going to leave.
Of course, they're not marketing sins, they're human failings.
Humility, empathy, generosity, patience and kindness, combined with the arrogance of the brilliant inventor, are a potent alternative.
There ARE NO houses being built... too much inventory
Clearing out excess inventory
Without a doubt the market is clearing out excess inventory albeit at a slow pace. We can look at markets even here in SoCal where short sales dominate the sales activity and are being priced to move. Yet you have those that are underwater (1 out of 3 in California with a mortgage) who simply sit in their homes continuing to pay their mortgage on their inflated asset. It is amazing the length of time that distressed sales have made up over half of all sales. I was digging through my data and found that for SoCal, since the summer of 2008 distressed sales (foreclosure resales and short sales) have made up roughly 50 percent of all sales each and every month. Four years where troubled properties have been the majority of the sales market.
You can even see that vacant homes for sale across the nation are being worked through the system:
*Vacant homes for sale
As we work through the excess inventory we are seeing some action with housing starts:
As many of you are fully aware, location does matter in real estate and single family housing starts for California have not improved:
So you likely can take away from this that nationwide homes are moving at a brisker pace to the point where home builders are actually going back into the market. In California with a big backlog of shadow inventory and inflated prices relative to incomes, home builders are largely absent from the single-family market.
The contradictory nature of our housing market – Investors skew down payment statistics. Four years of home sales in SoCal dominated by distressed properties. The over reliance on real estate for wealth. » Dr. Housing Bubble Blog
Without a doubt the market is clearing out excess inventory albeit at a slow pace. We can look at markets even here in SoCal where short sales dominate the sales activity and are being priced to move. Yet you have those that are underwater (1 out of 3 in California with a mortgage) who simply sit in their homes continuing to pay their mortgage on their inflated asset. It is amazing the length of time that distressed sales have made up over half of all sales. I was digging through my data and found that for SoCal, since the summer of 2008 distressed sales (foreclosure resales and short sales) have made up roughly 50 percent of all sales each and every month. Four years where troubled properties have been the majority of the sales market.
You can even see that vacant homes for sale across the nation are being worked through the system:
*Vacant homes for sale
As we work through the excess inventory we are seeing some action with housing starts:
As many of you are fully aware, location does matter in real estate and single family housing starts for California have not improved:
So you likely can take away from this that nationwide homes are moving at a brisker pace to the point where home builders are actually going back into the market. In California with a big backlog of shadow inventory and inflated prices relative to incomes, home builders are largely absent from the single-family market.
The contradictory nature of our housing market – Investors skew down payment statistics. Four years of home sales in SoCal dominated by distressed properties. The over reliance on real estate for wealth. » Dr. Housing Bubble Blog
Buying a house is an alternative to rent, not an investment... values haven't stopped falling yet
According to Case-Shiller/S&P, US housing prices have fallen to levels not seen since the 1890s (adjusted for inflation, of course), in 11 of 20 markets. It looks like this is slightly skewed by the serious economic problems in rustbelt cities, which is not to say that things aren't pretty terrible -- and the same analysis predicts a further decline of 15-20%.
more at Boing Boing
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
the barbarians have invaded
Now that the barbarians have invaded the gold coast we might get some action:
I have to ask the question no one is asking: does the community where these thugs come from bear any responsibility for producing and releasing them? Is a failing cultural paradigm supported by our pop culture really where your great grandfather wanted this to go? Where are the men who at one time would have scared hell out of these punks by telling them the truth. Kill someone with a weapon in IL, it's 40 years MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCE. Rob someone with a weapon, 6 years minimum, 30 maximum. This kid in this story will do serious time. This crime wave can only be stopped by people with the credibility to stop it. I know this goes against the grain, but locking up the leaders of the gangs is the wrong thing to do. IF you know the street, you know I'm right. Ya gotta have someone to talk to.
Maybe now that the gangs of marauders have invaded we'll see concrete action. These aren't swedes from Andersonville. Let's quit hiding behind political correctness. Truth is our friend if we face it. Time to turn the toxic tide.
One adult – 18-year-old Mitchell Coradarrowe, of the 5900 block of South Indiana Avenue – was charged with felony mob action and aggravated battery. Seven others, ages 13 to 16, were charged as juveniles with felony mob action.
I have to ask the question no one is asking: does the community where these thugs come from bear any responsibility for producing and releasing them? Is a failing cultural paradigm supported by our pop culture really where your great grandfather wanted this to go? Where are the men who at one time would have scared hell out of these punks by telling them the truth. Kill someone with a weapon in IL, it's 40 years MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCE. Rob someone with a weapon, 6 years minimum, 30 maximum. This kid in this story will do serious time. This crime wave can only be stopped by people with the credibility to stop it. I know this goes against the grain, but locking up the leaders of the gangs is the wrong thing to do. IF you know the street, you know I'm right. Ya gotta have someone to talk to.
Maybe now that the gangs of marauders have invaded we'll see concrete action. These aren't swedes from Andersonville. Let's quit hiding behind political correctness. Truth is our friend if we face it. Time to turn the toxic tide.
Monday, June 11, 2012
How to be successful - NOT
How to succeed
You don't need all of these, and some are mutually exclusive (while others are not). And most don't work, don't scale or can't be arranged:
- Be very focused on your goal and work on it daily
- Go to college with someone who makes it big and then hires you
- Be born with significant and unique talent
- Practice every day
- Network your way to the top by inviting yourself from one lunch to another, trading favors as you go
- Quietly do your job day in and day out until someone notices you and gives you the promotion you deserve
- Do the emotional labor of working on things that others fear
- Notice things, turn them into insights and then relentlessly turn those insights into projects that resonate
- Hire a great PR firm and get a lot of publicity
- Work the informational interview angle
- Perform outrageous acts and say obnoxious things
- Inherit
- Redefine your version of success as: whatever I have right now
- Flit from project to project until you alight on something that works out very quickly and well
- Be the best-looking person in the room
- Flirt
- Tell stories that people care about and spread
- Contribute more than is expected
- Give credit to others
- Take responsibility
- Aggrandize, preferably self
- Be a jerk and win through intimidation
- Be a doormat and refuse to speak up or stand up
- Never hesitate to share a kind word when it's deserved
- Sue people
- Treat every gig as an opportunity to create art
- Cut corners
- Focus on defeating the competition
- When dealing with employees, act like Steve. It worked for him, apparently.
- Persist, always surviving to ship something tomorrow
- When in doubt, throw a tantrum
- Have the ability to work harder and more directly than anyone else when the situation demands it
- Don't rock the boat
- Rock the boat
- Don't rock the boat, baby
- Resort to black hat tactics to get more than your share
- Work to pay more taxes
- Work to evade taxes
- Find typos
Facebook Stock is Worth $7.50 a Share at Best
Ouch, those poor people (and I mean really poor) who jumped on this bandwagon at $38 per share. P T Barnum has serious competition.
Facebook Stock is Worth $7.50 a Share at Best - Money Morning
Facebook Stock is Worth $7.50 a Share at Best - Money Morning
The wheels have come off the Obama Administrations Horse Cart
One of the immutable rules of politics is that if you have to explain something you've said publicly, the argument is already lost. "What I was trying to say was...."
Loser!
In that sense President Obama was strategically wise Friday afternoon not to try to somehow explain his morning jaw-dropper about the private U.S. economic sector doing just fine with the real unemployment rate above 14%. Instead, the Democrat simply contradicted himself. Create a new quotable reality. The Chicago way.
Morning: "The private sector is doing just fine."
Afternoon: "It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine."
Dissembling doesn't faze him. Pretending just might work. Which Obama do you believe? Increasingly, neither. The president's latest gaffe is, as another high-ranking Democrat would put it, a big #$%&*+@ deal because:
Obama's economic policies are like deer-hunting with an AK-47 by Andrew Malcolm - Investors.com
Loser!
In that sense President Obama was strategically wise Friday afternoon not to try to somehow explain his morning jaw-dropper about the private U.S. economic sector doing just fine with the real unemployment rate above 14%. Instead, the Democrat simply contradicted himself. Create a new quotable reality. The Chicago way.
Morning: "The private sector is doing just fine."
Afternoon: "It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine."
Dissembling doesn't faze him. Pretending just might work. Which Obama do you believe? Increasingly, neither. The president's latest gaffe is, as another high-ranking Democrat would put it, a big #$%&*+@ deal because:
Obama's economic policies are like deer-hunting with an AK-47 by Andrew Malcolm - Investors.com
Hiroshima-67 Years Later...
What happened to the radiation that lasts thousands of years?
Go to the end!!!
HIROSHIMA 1945
We all know that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed in August 1945
after the explosion of atomic bombs.
However, we know little about the progress made by the people of that land
during the past 67 years.
HIROSHIMA - 67 YEARS LATER
DETROIT- 67 YEARS AFTER HIROSHIMA
What has caused more long term destruction -
the A-bomb,
or
U. S. Government welfare programs created to buy the
votes of those who want someone to take care of them?
Japan does not have a welfare system.
Work for it or do without.
Go to the end!!!
HIROSHIMA 1945
We all know that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed in August 1945
after the explosion of atomic bombs.
However, we know little about the progress made by the people of that land
during the past 67 years.
HIROSHIMA - 67 YEARS LATER
DETROIT- 67 YEARS AFTER HIROSHIMA
What has caused more long term destruction -
the A-bomb,
or
U. S. Government welfare programs created to buy the
votes of those who want someone to take care of them?
Japan does not have a welfare system.
Work for it or do without.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
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