Housing Bubble >>>> Not

Inman's blog has a great perspective builder on the bubble concept:

• We like the cardboard box part Quote of the month from mortgage broker Dick Lepre.
• "The concept is, for the most part, fallacious. Bubbles exist for things which people do not really need and buy for speculative purposes. The most recent example is the internet stock bubble of the 1990's. I see no evidence that a large number ofpeople are suddenly going to sell their homes and
• a) live in rentals,
• b) leave the country,
• c) live in cardboard boxes and,
• d) live in motor homes."

Conservatives Global

So Bush wins handily in the United States
And a conservative liberal in UK, Blair, wins barely over a more conservative candidate
And Frenchie Chirac loses a no-confidence EU vote
NOW, drumroll please

It looks like Germany will not only have its first female chancellor but also will have a conservative in that office for the first time in 35 years.

Why?

I believe we are seeing the 21st Century shift to the right that accompanies globalism, democratic exporting, and vitory of freedom over socialism. But this "right" has enough compassion to see that a mean-spirited political move would merely hasten the return of socialism and liberal thought.

Similar to the church, if the evagelical really wants trouble, remind the liberals of fundamentalism and its stain on the church.

What then does this new "conservatism" call itself? Progressive, no that's been coopted already by liberals in sheeps clothing wanting to look like conservatives.

Middlers, no that's too corny

Throw me some good nomenclature, some catchy names that will encompasse this major 21st Century move.

Uzbekistan Reverts to Foolish

So we sent three of our Senators to Uzbekistan and >>> they were turned away by the government leaders. Why? It looks like they were not happy to "share" the limelight with opposition groups that met with the Senators.

The United States wants Uzbeks to continue their fight against terror ... but we also want to push real democracy. We're at an impasse while we wait and watch to see who comes out on top.

Try www.registan.net for some of the best Uzbek and Democracy movement coverage in the blogosphre. He does a great little research project called Democary Carnival today.

Some random places to see what's going on in the world:

Hillary's got bad money, and probably knows about it

Guatamalan ministry that helps out kids in the city dump, for real

About time we made decisions without cow-towing to the Russians

New Home Sales records continue, and the economy continues to be carried by new home construction. For how long? Is it time for other sectors to start pulling their weight?

Realtor.org reports that lenders are going to crack down on inflated appraisals. Oh yeah? Then who would have benefited from inflated appraisals? The lenders, the realtors, the homeowners? Sounds a bit fishy to me

I'll get to more posting tomorrow. Sorry about the lag, lots going on.

New Post Finally

How can two weeks go by sooo quickly? I was really enjoying the blogging and then got caught up in the hum drum of life and haven't been back in the saddle for two weeks.

I did write an ariticle about new homes in Indiana, and really the article applies to homes in every place. It's important to note that all areas have a Commissioner or Councilman like we do that actually says things like "I don't want those kind of people living in my community." Yes it's patently racist and probably fascist, but it's accepatable in a culture that says if you're afraid you're allowed to say horrible things.

New Home Blueprint #1 (I'll be writing a series of articles over the next 20 weeks)
Why all the battles between home builders and politicians lately?

There is a battle at hand … and that battle is for the heart of our economy. You may think that a reference to the steel industry or manufacturing comes next … NO!

The heart and soul of Porter County’s economy is construction. More specifically construction of new homes. While other industries have fallen or left, construction has continued at a break-neck pace heretofore unmatched in the history of this region. With interest rates at 30 year lows and population growth rates expected to double in the future, that demand will continue. Mark this comment for posterity, people want new homes. Some politicians may be “against” new homes, some politicians may even try to take options away from the people … but people create a demand for new homes not the much degraded and downtrodden home builder.

While Northwest Indiana continues to see continuous growth in the home building industry, we raise the question – when will housing for regular people be ended? Are those days gone we ask? Possibly…and how unfortunate and how foolish that would be. If our economy is to grow, regular families with good jobs and strong commitments to community will need places to live. Some county politicos may not want “those people” living close … but I sure do. Now it’s one thing to take pot-shots at politicos, but the question we all need to ask is: what can we really do about maintaining housing for porter county’s workers?

Some action steps:
1. Inform your county commissioners and councilmen that you are firmly for economic development and the creation of jobs for real working people. Real people that have to have a place to live. Real people who should have the option of buying a new home if they so choose.

2. If you own your home, take a serious look at the home buying options in the market today. A scare tactic is sophomoric but it is true that we won’t maintain 30 year lows on long term interest rates for ever. You may want to buy a home now … they only go up in price.

3. If you are a renter. STOP RENTING. Did you know that when the county council passes the small income tax increase that is required to become part of the RDA, a terrific economic development vehicle, that about half that income tax will go to reducing the property tax on “owner occupied” homes? If you rent you’ll never see that benefit.

If you rent, you’re losing out on the federal tax benefit of a mortgage interest deduction.

If you rent, you’re losing out on the chance to ride the appreciation wave that only housing seems able to maintain. We’ve increased housing values every year since 1981. That’s a pretty accurate gauge of investment potential

4. If you are a business owner looking to grow in Porter County, make sure you are loud and clear in your support for access to housing for working people. Your employees need to have homes, homes that are safe, homes that will appreciate, homes that they can be proud to own.

5. If you are a politician. Woe to you that attack the “preponderance” of new homes overtaking out county. Such small minded scare tactics will merely banish you from constructive talk about quality of life in our great county. Your constituents want new homes. You have no right to take their options away from them. Worse, you could be helping local companies make the decision to eliminate workers or even outsource overseas just to make your neighborhood “upper class.” Can you afford to alienate the entire middle income population of Porter County? Can you afford to have the next outsource laid at your feet?


Why the angst, you may question? Ah, the culmination of the point … the dénouement they call it in literature.

A new home in Porter County can no longer be built for less than $100,000! Not with local agencies pocketing thousands for “tapping” into sewers … Mind you the actual cost of a “tap” is only about $200 total they just grab more. Not with the county’s foolish Open Space Ordinance written specifically to keep “those people” out and only allow big estate homes on multi acre lots. Not with the current mind-set among politicians that the home builder, once a prized profession, is the enemy of society or worse the “easy” guy to tax. One Porter County city, even suggested raising their permit fees 200% … why you ask … because they had more people doing the same job and therefore deserved more money.

It’s high time we rekindled our commitment to workers in Porter County and home buying options aplenty for all our citizens.

Steve Dalton
Synergy Homes


Next: New Homes Blueprint #2 How do I choose a new home builder, there’s so many!

New Star Wars movie comes out this week, released in Cannes today
See post in Guardian

Rueters critique of the last episode

Uh-Oh is looks like the director, Lucas, is anti-Bush too

Guy in line in Hollywood is blogging for BBC website, now that's a small world

As soon as you watch it, post a critique, and rate 1 to 10

I like this guys humor with regards to a horrible situation, makes a good point

Oh good a liberal lecturing us on taking care of each other. Of course like every good liberal his point appears to be that he should be trusted to hold my wallet for me.

I wholeheartedly agree that some world travels provide perspective. We've got it good. Even if the mills closed, even if gas went to $5.00, even if NIPSCO lays off thousands of people for outsourcing, even if we grow in population and the minorities dare to move into our neighborhood, even if the dow drops 1000 points, even if the housing bubble pops, even if we lose great teachers and end up with average teachers, even if East Chicago's criminal leadership from city hall is replicated in our community ...

we have it good
we have opportunity
we have democracy
we have water and food and shelter
we have freedom to speak and meet
we have our great history of overcoming the obstacles of imposed impossibilities ... and we've smashed them and raised the collective mankind bar of measurement.

Go ahead try and depress me, it won't be easy.

Try a little Uzbekistan research, or Israeli-Palestine research, or North Korea ... we've got it damn good ... but giving your wallet to a liberal to take care of others is still stupid. Take some reponsibility for your own wallet and look around.

What's going on in Afganistan? Are we making progress in the war against terror there?

Take a look at toomuchblue's site and the link to a pretty full report on a firefight recently that was hard fought and successful.

“This is going to force them to rethink their strategy,” Riggenberg said. “I think our tactics will force them to fight and die or surrender. I think we put them on their heels. They now know that the American Army still has the energy to hunt them down.”

Now if terror-muslims have to leave Afganistan and Iraq this decade they will still have lots of places to go. They'll flood into former Soviet republics ... they'll head into northern Africa ... they are not going away. This war is going to take decades and will make the cold war seem easy.

This site does a media type job of tracking tags. In this case the continuing story of Uzbekistan and the crisis yesterday.

Did the Islamacists rise up to take over the country?
Did petty criminals break their friends out of jail?
Does democracy have a chance in a place where Russia may be calling the shots?
Should the US back the opposition because they say they are for democracy ... or back the leaders in place now that are dictatorial but allied with us against the Islamacists and terror?

Watch closely, during Iran-Contra we didn't have access to this much information.

Are you wondering why anyone cares about Uzbekistan? Especially a business person from the United States? Here's why ... you care about democracy on every corner of every street in this world ... or you aren't a democrat ... you're an opportunist. As information flows faster, do we have the guts in the west to make hard decisions? To back democracy even when the people may choose fanaticism?

So I"m reading this blog about hyper-local blogging and community creation and what strikes me? That a comment can be left for any ad, post, classified. So let's say a local business runs a "help wanted" ad ... and they are really looking for someone to pay $100 to join a pyramid ... then this gets added to the blog comment section.

Now that's accountability. This business would quickly find that no one would call for an interview and then they couldnt dupe people into paying them to start pyramid companies.

Wanna prediction?

Barbara Boxer is America's ranking liberal woman. She's throwing all the punches at Bush and Bolton and anything conservative. Read about her latest move to hold up Bolton.

Now here's the political play: Hillary ... Yes the potential 2008 President ... she desperately needs to "triangulate" like Bill could. Hillary will swoop in to provide some moderation and get a vote on the Bush justices (with maybe a couple names removed) and get a vote on Bolton (with a deal that he will be careful about his temper and some extra money for the UN) and she'll get into bed with Newt on health care reform.

She may even offer to meet with Bush to talk about "real" welfare reform.

If I was running her non-announced campaign, I'd tell her, it's time to separate and triangulate. Americans love the leader who is above the political fray, we always have, can you say George Washington? We didn't get political parties until John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson came along. George had all three in his administration!!!

Here comes Hillary.

Uzbeks Rise Up

Ok here's a blogosphere research project. What is really going on in Uzbekistan today? Is there a democracy movement storming the streets? Or is there a group of Islamic fundamentalists rising up to take over the country?

Let's look at a group of blogs: First guy says the conservatives are being too quiet.

This report comes from Moscow and is a reporters take translated and posted this evening.

It appears that Nathan from registan.net is the blogs favorite for news from the front on central asia. His site has a bunch to digest so try this first.

So what really happened in Uzbekistan last night? Well it looks like 23 men were arrested over the last couple weeks. They were allied or connected to Islamic group that may be terror. Their families wanted them sprung. As many as 4,000 people were in the streets protesting. They may have even taken over a prison and let prisoners out. The government opened fire and hostages and civilians were killed.

Is this a democracy movement. Yes, for some of the "economic" protestors. But it also appears that the Islamacists are using the real democrats as pawns to get their people in place to cause carnage.

Watch closely and read all the blogs, we may never get the story from the media. This is too much work for them to try and keep track.

Good work from Scraps of Moscow putting the leading website in perspective and getting some on-location reports from real journalists.

So whats the latest?
Some pictures of the carnage

Nathan from registan.net continues to have key posts and reviews that help put things in perspective.

Question: What position will the US take? Can they afford to be allied with a government that is seen as oppressive just for the sake of the "war on terror?"

Want some good news on Iraq? Well guess what ... I know big surprise ... the main stream media isn't doing a very good job covering what's actually going right. Why is that? Why do they work so hard to tell us what's going wrong?

Read this great line up of "good news" stories from April of this year

Now let's delve a bit. Does the media want Sadaam back? No
Does the media believe that Al-Queda should take over? No
Does the media want to see Iraq destroyed by bombs and deaths? No
What do they want?

They want news. They know that Americans are at root stupid. Remember on of my top tens ... Stupid People wont catch inferences. Well stupid people like to read and hear stories that are framed by this many people died and there is a "terrible" struggle between good and evil and it looks like good is faltering ... OOOOOO!!!!

We really want to blame the "media" but arent we really the culprits ... do we really want to take the time to find out what's really going on? Or ... big pause .... are we too busy?

Whatever

Battle Over UN

So this guy wants to be ambassador to the UN? And the President nominates him ... the liberals hate the guy ... the moderates seem to be wavering (see article on Colin Powell) ... and the convervatives and Bush are "high" on him. Whats the real story?

Will he call for the UN Sec Gen to step down?
Will he push the UN to take a more active role?
Will he try and use the UN to make democracy more available?

What exactly would he do that is sooo scary to the liberals and the moderates. Would he speak his mind and really tick off the liberals?

I was ready to see his name removed from consideraton early ... now maybe we really do want him if the liberals hate him so much.

Could Hillary lose her Senate job?

A young republican in New York would like to unseat Hillary in 2006 before she even starts her campaign for Presidency.

We should make sure this guy gets lots of press. The weaker she appears the better ... she'll win ... but a weak Hillary will be easily beaten by Guliani or another republican.

Read up and keep on top of this story, the press won't be saying much on their own.

Advice for Building Options

Read this article which gives good planning advice for options for new homes.

My thoughts? You can never have too many options, people will spend thousands of dollars on options if we make them simple and don't make them have to "watch" us to keep us honest.

The problem? We don't know our options pricing and we don't have good access to professionals that can advise and counsel our buyers. For example if you want to add a home theater, bring in the home theater expert, but only allow him 30 minutes to get to the point. You don't know enough ... he does ... he can't stop himself from talking ... you can ... the customer is still the most important.

Not offering the option, because it makes the building process easier, doesn't help the buyer!

Testimony from a Sorority

Stop and think about your college days ... were you thinking about how to talk about Christ to your friends while teeth brushing or doing your hair? Probably not.

Read this testimony from an Intervarsity Greek Student who did just that.

Canada Has Problems

May 11th update

I guess that the Candadians don't really have self-government. If I follow this article right it seems that the British Queen can throw out their prime minister and put a new one in power who can then ask for a new election. How do you like that for power without representation?

Time for Candadians to throw the Brits off their collective backs and take responsibility for themselves. The problem with the Canadians in general is that they won't take responsibility for themselves: welfare state, blame America, let everyone else handle world security, leave it to UN, let the frenchies boss everyone around. I'll tell ya what Canada, if the Brits tell your legislature what to do ... you're a colony again. Call us when you're ready to throw off the mantle of tyranny and go it alone.

Read it here

Indiana Politics

Governor Daniels got nearly everything he wanted ... and in the first session mind you. So much for the Dems predictions of a stalemate like they gave us for 16 years.

Read the Indy Star article on his success

Also, locally Valpo got terrific assistance from Vic Heinold and Ralph Ayres in this session. We got 10 new liquour licenses for downtown and we got a Transit Authority Bill that the dems said "it will never happen."

Read the NWI Times article

Kudos to Chuck Williams, Porter County republican chair, and his team of legislators for a terrific Valpo and Porter County focused session. Now how do we get rid of Bob Harper so we can really get this county going the right direction?

One of those situations where you know there is more to the story. Greek Orthodox Partiarch removed from office, first time, for selling property to Jewish investors? I think there is more to this story.

Read and then tell me if you find more.

Here's backward thinking for you. The city of Fort Wayne gave empty lots to a not-for-profit, kinda like our City Builders. The not-for-profit tried to fix people's lives and build some houses, sure they increased appraised values, sure they used government grants ... like they should have. Then the government came down on them and sued them for 'inflating' values on houses, shut them down ... and the city took back all the lots. Go ahead and read all about it.

Now the government is out $208,000 and private banks are out some money and Fort Wayne is going to use this new "Synergy" program to take over and do it "right".

Come on cant we all think this through, the government is terrible at fixing people's lives, and in this case they got in the way of a group that might have been successful.

OK I need your thoughts on education. In Valparaiso this year we will have two new school board members appointed. Here's the rub ... only two people have applied and one is already on the board!!!

Come on it's time to shake things up. Read this article on education and tell me that we don't need a little 're-imagining' in the arena of public education.

Valpo is not an island gang ... we can't play chicken little. We have problems and we need solutions too.

Wouldn't it be embarrasing for Hillary and Company if the federal government were to start getting more money into their coffers ... even though the dems predicted the end of the world when W cut taxes. Well get ready this post makes it look like it's on its way!!!

Wine Blog

Wanna get some new wine ideas? Wanna comment on a winery that fell way short of it's potential? Check out this wine blog

Blog used to sell new wine

Hey here's a cool idea: Use a blog to sell and promote a new Napa Valley winery

Winery website

Check out this article seems to say what we thought: Government is out of control! Thanks Aaron

Watch the RTA politics this week, gang, any politician voting against dollars for RTA is against economic development >>> and should be ushred out of office >>>> Even if they are Republican

An eye to Israel is an important focus for all international junkies. Sure Syria pulled out of Lebanon and Israel and Palestine are talking about a potential peace.

But, daily terrorists plot to bomb and kill Israeli citizens.

These terrorists are Moslem ... all of them. Keep an eye on Israel

Curious about Africa?

President Bush has taken advantage of the situation in Lebanan to gain a foothold for democracy and push the Syrians out. We'll be watching to see the Lebanese take over running their own country.

Now, why doesn't he give the same attention to African democratic movements?

For example the coup in Togo and resultant resignation of the "president" may be an opportunity for democracy on this war-torn continent.

Notice two things in this Times Jail Cell article:

Lains is definitely the front runner to replace Reynolds

Costas and his team have some good news in downtown to get the ball rolling

Christians on College Campuses

Time magazine's article focuses on Indiana University and the main college ministries there including Greek Intervarsity.