Re: And their dicks are small and limp.
 

It's a fairly old photo. I can't remember if it was from the primary or the race with White.

Re: And their dicks are small and limp.
 

I don't know if it's the incentives so much -- many plaintiffs' lawyers convince themselves that the other side is evil, and have a level of self-righteousness well above the average prosecutors'. (And by plaintiffs' lawyers I do not mean people who only/mainly represent plaintiffs. Among the worst self-righteousness I've seen is from lawyers with the kind of practice where they can easily be on either side of the v.)

I think it's about power, too. In some ways, the conduct is the same -- the plaintiff brings an overbroad suit and uses the threat of legal fees and a jury trial, the prosecutor overcharges, and both get a settlement result more often than the facts truly justify.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

We are all totally fucked.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Huh. She seems to like my obsession. She sends me little notes almost every day, keeping me up-to-date on goings on in washington and telling me how much she likes those little cash gifts I leave her.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Nah, we're just fucked. Greece is totally fucked.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

2. Which is why we need to reward cops willing to mace the rabble hordes not prosecute them.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

They're not fucked. They got loaned a lot of money from Germany and spent it.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Incorrect pithy comeback. The correct one is, "Greece and Germany are both fucked."

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Research the manufacturers of parts for guns. The minute we get a good solid crime spike (and it's coming... we're already seeing increases here in PA), that stuff's going to spike.

I'd also bet like fucking crazy against urban real estate. First place the mobs hit, and the first place taxes will rise. This talk about suburban poverty is overblown. Bank on some crazy shit happening in places like Baltimore, Philly, Miami, Chicago.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

New graph, not the same as the old graphs:

http://col.stb.s-msn.com/i/6C/55F64F...FCE3CF7271.JPG

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Cities are only going to get more and more expensive as traffic continues to suck and gas prices rise. Betting against urban real estate is a mistake.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

That's Yesterday's Conventional Thinking. Went stale about twelve months ago. Cities like NYC, SF and Boston will continue to be safe, if not great, investments in terms of r/e. Places without financial and tech centers are going to crater.

Safety and Cheaper Taxes > Fuel concerns. Cities are ahead of the curve on everything, including crime waves accruing from desperation. Those who can will run. And the suburbs have a glut of deals for them to buy. And decent public education, which most cities can't offer (forcing parents who can ill afford it in this economy to send kids to private schools).

It's a liberal totem cities are the future. *Some* cities are. But not the other 80% of them.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

C'mon, Germany. My future home in Finland awaits.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I believe I can take the Irish citizenry (if they don't find out about the English relatives).

In all sincerity, I was with a buddy who should be happy as fuck about the economy right now at a party on Saturday. His view was quite bleak. Volatility's good for business, but when all the math leads to Ty's earlier link title - "We're fucked" - it's just gilding your cabin on the Titanic.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

1. Finland's solid. Look at all the links and charts and graphs posted here. Basically no debt whatsoever. And the rampaging warm-blooded deadbeats (Greeks, Italians, Portugese) won't get past Holland.

2. Finland's chicks are hot, horny and direct (if you agree to go out on a date, they expect you to put out). And if you want to see what they (admittedly the high end) look like - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2-HL...eature=related (SFW). My favorite comment on the video page - "Näköjään kauneus ja matemaattiset taidot ei kulje ihan käsikädessä..näytti olevan niin vitun vaikee mennä ees numero järjestykseen."

3. Finland's so-called downsides, like weather and darkness, do not affect me. In fact, I rarely notice.

4. Global warming will make Finland increasingly balmy. I am looking at property on the soon-to-be Finnish/Estonian Riviera.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Also, cities fundamentally suck, so we like to put poor people there who have no choices. More poor people, more cities.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

At least around here, outer burbs have a glut but inner burbs have done quite well. While I'm with you in the long term, because I just can't figure out how as people get choices they choose expensive, congested, grimy, cramped, and falling apart environments to live in, at the moment, I think the inner zombie burbs and cities do seem to be doing better.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Welcome to the hippy thinking of the 1960s.

Eta: I meant yuppie obviously.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

My wife's mostly Norwegian. Similar. I am a fan.

The darkness, however, might drive me nuts. I like Summer. But then, I'd get 24 hour summer a few weeks every year, no? So maybe that's a non-issue.

This is a long way of asking if I can visit down the road. And perhaps stay in your basement apartment for, say, three or four years. Just until the civil wars over here are over.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

is there not the opposite timing somewhere down at the bottom of South america or some New Zealand southern extreme island? you just need to go to snow bird status is all.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I didn't mention the exburbs. I think those have problems. Not because they're too far from cities (that's irrelevant). But because they attracted lower-to-mid-middle class buyers priced out of the regular burbs, many of whom are getting hit most acutely with layoffs, and are overleveraged. I see those things turning into wastelands of rural insolvents. That stuff's better bulldozed back into farmland.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

New Zealand has that pesky ozone hole over it. I don't want to be anywhere I have to put on sunscreen to go buy a loaf of bread.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

my F-I-L is in Ann's Choice retirement village in Warminster. Warminster is pretty scary now. I'd hate to think what it'll look like once all our social contracts and police protection expire. Dad's 87. How many years before you see the wars starting, and can you recommend any good armed security in that part of Buck's?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

They're the only place you can still get enough space to live. I have no understanding, having tried it, of how people live on less than an acre of land. Just stifling.

And, zombie land has no appreciation of good lawn sculpture.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

In Philly, those people were stuffed in pockets outside the core downtown area. Same goes for every other city, generally. The correct answer is, "Parts of cities fundamentally suck." The nice parts, OTOH, are quite enjoyable. How can you argue with having everything you need in walking distance? That's the worst part of the suburbs. Everything's a fucking drive.

I think a sign things are really, really bad will be if we see cities shutting down a few strategically chosen roads (like DC did with the road in front of the White House). The pretext will be its part of some green initiative - to encourage more people to walk, or create something akin to a park in certain nice areas of town. But in reality, the idea will be to ring off some of the better areas to keep businesses and consumers in town. To isolate the safer spots from the unsafe areas, like Georgetown refusing a subway stop.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I do. I have .80 and the lot is more than I need. I'd like an acre, I guess, but managing that would be a bitch. A buddy of mine has 5, and keeping the property together, even with an army of workers mowing regularly, is a second job. But if you like that work, I guess it's enjoyable. I like the riding mower. Fun to let the kid drive the thing on my lap. Chainsawing down pear and apple trees? Not so much. The chainsawing's fun. The clean up's a bitch.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Bucks County will be fine. Their main seat refused a highway connecting directly to Philly to avoid having the city bleed into them and lower property values. Most of the property out there is owned by NYers, and they keep it nice. In fact, many people actually commute to NY from a train stop in Bucks. I think you can get an Amtrak there.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Georgetown refused a subway stop?

There is no reason gated communities can't be in a city instead of just in the burbs. Memphis has rebuilt it's downtown living areas with them. It's wrong, and quite an ugly statement, but they're there.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

When you have 10 acres, you stop thinking about the whole property as a fucking suburban lawn. A little lawn and a garden is nice, but you also need a bit of meadow and some woods and a nice place by the stream to kick back while the dogs run.

People who want to walk to everything usually forget that part of everything is that bench by the stream with no one around. I need a vista. If I were ever going to live in the city, I'd have to be by the water front or looking over everything.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Ugh. I grew up with yardwork. I have no interest in any of this crap anymore. I'll keep my heinously expensive SF house, with its postage-stamp yard and a host of good restaurants, bars and bakeries within walking distance (or a short bus ride if the hills are too daunting).

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Vistas, I got. Except when it's too foggy, but that's only 5 days a week or so.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

In your world, there is nothing to worry about. Obama won't get re-elected, and as soon as President Romney is inaugurated the Rs will rediscover their love of stimulus spending (er, I mean unfunded war) and lay off the Fed to give it free rein to do what's necessary. And, of course, the Dems don't have the fortitude to use obstruction to put party over country.

Thinking about it is almost enough reason to vote for Romney.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I don't think your example fits your argument. Also, park areas are probably less effective borders than roads.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Yes. The Orange/Blue lines go right under it on the way from Foggy Bottom to Rosslyn. Legend has it that the original plans included a Georgetown stop, which the residents of Georgetown voted down.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

You're doing it wrong, man. You need to move on up. From my east-facing windows I have a panorama of downtown. From my north/west-facing windows I look over a well manicured graduate school campus, with the Twins stadium beyond that. And I'm high enough that you can see the edges of the Mississippi Valley in the distance. There is no way I would trade that for spending three hours a day in rush our traffic, only to get home to a place where I have to drive some more to get something to eat or find some entertainment.

If it's nature you need, get a cabin.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I don't think the average American with cash to live in a gated community wants to live in something like Sao Paulo, where the minute you leave the compound, you're in a danger zone. That's more a prison than a community. I also think most people like land.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Comparison of my home to a place in SF? Dude, that's no competition at all. You're in one of the greatest places on Earth. Anytime you get sick of it and would like to trade, I'm all ears.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Better than inner burbs.

Yeah, the next couple million I spend on real estate will be a little pied a terre in the city. Probably get that sometime around 2025. Maybe in Montreal.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Maybe most, and maybe DC and Minneapolis have skewed my perspective, but I still see the trend moving back toward the city (as has been the case for a couple decades). Here, rental vacancies are rare, and there are at least three luxury high rise apartment complexes in the works.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

For my taste, better than all burbs. To me the only reason to even consider it is for schools if you have kids. Or I guess if you like busy-body neighbors.

Then again I put zero psychological value on owning a "house" and I really hate yard work.