Take THIS Media!

Warning: What you are about to read is not "politically correct."
Read it and weap. But do take the time to read it, be informed. I love the truth, don't you?


The Rest of the Meltdown Story
by Neal Boortz

What in the world is going on here?
You’ve seen the headlines, and you heard of the failures and buyouts. Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG; all big names and all in big trouble. Then those mysterious quasi-government agencies with names like Freddie and Fannie become wards of the state and you learn that you and your fellow taxpayers are potentially on the hook for tens of billions of dollars. At the end of the week Washington Mutual is looking for a buyer, and you start to wonder about the security of your own bank and your own savings account. Let’s change that ad copy to WaMu -- boo hoo.
Somewhere in the back of your mind you understand that this is all tied somehow to bad mortgages. If you start reading a bit further to enhance your understanding you run into terms like Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and credit-default swaps, whatever in the world those are. Read further and you find out that a combination of falling home prices and mortgage defaults have put many investment banks and other financial institutions in deep puddin’. All this reading, all this watching the talking heads on TV, and you still don’t really know what in the world is going on here.
Fear not. I’m here to help. I know … I’m just another talk show host; but the fact is that when the stage was being set for the problems we’re seeing today I was making most of my money as a real estate lawyer .. closing loans for some of the very institutions that are the tank today. This rather unique combination – closing lawyer and radio talk show host – gave me a front row seat to the politicization of mortgage loans that led us to today’s headlines.
OK .. so we all know that a lot of really bad real estate loans were made. The political class would sure love for us to believe that the blame here rests squarely on “greedy” (try to define that word) mortgage brokers and lenders. The truth is that most of the blame rests on political meddling in the credit decisions of these mortgage lenders.
Twenty years ago the buzz-word in the media was “redlining.” Newspapers across the country were filled with hard-hitting investigative reports about evil and racist mortgage lenders refusing to make real estate loans to various minorities and to applicants who lived in lower-income neighborhoods. There I was closing these loans in the afternoons, and in the mornings offering a counter-argument on the radio to these absurd “redlining” claims. Frankly, the claims that evil mortgage lenders were systematically denying loans to blacks and other minorities were a lot sexier on the radio than my claims that when credit histories, job stability, loan-to-value ratios and income levels were considered there was no evident racial discrimination.
Political correctness won the day. Washington made it clear to banks and other lending institutions that if they did not do something .. and fast .. to bring more minorities and low-income Americans into the world of home ownership there would be a heavy price to pay. Congress set up processes (Research the Community Redevelopment Act) whereby community activist groups and organizers could effectively stop a bank’s efforts to grow if that bank didn’t make loans to unqualified borrowers. Enter, stage left, the “subprime” mortgage. These lenders knew that a very high percentage of these loans would turn to garbage – but it was a price that had to be paid if the bank was to expand and grow. We should note that among the community groups browbeating banks into making these bad loans was an outfit called ACORN. There is one certain presidential candidate that did a lot of community organizing for ACORN. I won’t mention his name so as to avoid politicizing this column.
These garbage loans to unqualified borrowers were then bundled up and sold. The expectation was that the loans would be eventually paid off when rising home values led some borrowers to access their equity through re-financing and others to sell and move on up the ladder. Oops.
Right now this crisis is being sold to the American public by the left as evidence the failure of the free market and capitalism. Not so. What we’re seeing is the inevitable result of political interference in free market economics. Acme bank didn’t want to loan money to Joe Homebuyer because Joe had a spotty job history, owed too much money on his credit cards, and wasn’t all that good at making payments on time. The politicians told Acme Bank to figure out a way to make that loan, because, after all, Joe is a bona-fide minority-American, or forget about opening that new branch office on the Southside. The loan was made under politicial pressure; the loan, with millions like it, failed – and now we are left to enjoy today’s headlines.
So … why aren’t you reading the whole story in the mainstream media? Come on, are you kidding me? Do you really expect the media to blame this mess on deadbeat borrowers and political interference in the free market when it is so easy to put the blame on greedy lenders and evil capitalists? Remember … there’s an election going on. One candidate is decidedly anti-capitalist. Do the math.

Bocalicious

Michael and I have a secret splurge. We order our coffee online from Boca Java. It's this gourmet coffee that my aunt sent to me one time as gift. The reason we love it is because it can come in so many delectable flavors that have an incredible, irresistible smell. For example, "Tropical Two-Step" is vanilla and cinnamon coffee, "Courtside Chocolate" is the flavor of German chocolate cake, and my personal favorite "Chocolate Hazelnut Heaven" - basically the smell nutella in coffee form. They offer the normal coffee for the old folk, fruity flavors for the adventurous and a whole lot of chocolatey caramely goodness for people like us. 

I kid you not the smell of those coffee beans is life changing. You can only order online, they roast your beans only after you order them, and some of the proceeds go to fighting leukemia. I feel good ordering from Boca Java. If you want a sample of this coffee, come on over and I'll brew you a cup. Cheers.

Oh, and no one is paying me to say this.

Gems

Take a look at my bomb shell best friends. I came across these pictures today and I thought that they deserved more recognition. Through the past eight years, these four girls - now women- have meant the world to me. I know that God has blessed us with a unique closeness that not everyone gets to experience in a friendship. We have hopes and dreams of living and growing up together in the same cul-de-sac with many little children who all inter-marry so that we can all be related. Although, we do want to avoid cult-like criticism. I trust the Lord that some day we will all be together again in this side of Heaven...cause we sure do have an amazing time when we are with one another! I hope that everyone has at least one friendship, one relationship in their life that brings them as much joy as these sisters bring me.

Humph.

I had a blog post.
A good one indeed.
It was a story
About a boy who peed.
I spent minutes upon minutes
Writing up the details.
I was using my Dell
Which is as slow as snails. (Mac please)
I wanted to share with you my day
Of preschool and my potty training way.
But my laptop does not like me
and errased all my hard work.
So now I am boycotting my laptop
Because it was a jerk.

Technical note

Ok, there is some malfunction going on with my computer/blog where it is only showing a portion of the post. If you come on to my site, hit your refresh button so that the entire post shows up. Not that I think I am so interesting that y'all just can't miss out, but it is frustrating when a website doesn't work. That's all!

Too much latte love?

So I was eating some mixed nuts today and I came across a hazelnut. I cleared my mouth of other nut tastes so that I could really focus on the flavor of it. As I chewed on the little guy, I said to Michael, "wow, this really tastes like a hazelnut latte!"

Shameful isn't it? Taste assimilation is suppose to be the other way around - the pink starburst emulates the flavor of a natural, farm grown strawberry, the gummi coke bottles are meant to taste like real coke-a-cola, jelly bellys are created simply to give us the kick of tasting other foods in them. Do I revolve that much around my starbucks lattes that I feel the world around me is trying to be like the coffee drinks? What came first - the hazelnut latte or the hazelnut itself.

What is the world coming to these days? John McCain, please bring America back to our old farm country roots.

Remedy Needed

I realized that there are three errands that I really do not like to go on:
1) Going to the bank
2) Going to the post office
3) Going to the grocery store
I also realize that those are serious life tasks. Why do I have to dread them????? The bank and p.o. I can understand....but there is something about the g-store that is unappealing to me. It's clearly not the food because I love food. Would going with someone make it any easier? But how lame is that, "hey! Do you want to go grocery shopping with me? It could be so fun! We could each have our own cart." Maybe its the time of day that I tend to go. Mid-day to early evening is when there are many people, long lines and lots of traffic. I need to pray for delight in running these types of errands because as far as I know, they happen all the time.