Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | AP: U.S. Blocked Release of CAFTA Reports: "The contractor hired by the department in 2002 to conduct the studies has become a major opponent of the administration's proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA.
The government-paid studies concluded that countries proposed for free-trade status have poor working environments and fail to protect workers' rights. The department dismissed the conclusions as inaccurate and biased, according to government and contractor documents reviewed by The Associated Press. "
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Who Are Americans to Think That Freedom Is Theirs to Spread? - New York Times: "The failure to convict anybody higher than a sergeant for these crimes leaves many Americans and a lot of the world wondering whether Jefferson's vision of America hasn't degenerated into an ideology of self-congratulation, whose function is no longer to inspire but to lie. "
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, blogging, on media conglomeration.
TPMCafe || Table For One: "The reality is that today, a handful of conglomerates such as Viacom, Disney, General Electric, TimeWarner-AOL, Murdoch's News Corporation and a few others have an incredible impact on the flow of information that goes out to the American people, as well as our culture. There is a reason why millions of Americans had to turn to the BBC or the CBC for more objective information on the lead up to the war in Iraq. There is a reason why TV executives believe that the Michael Jackson's trial or Tom Cruise's engagement deserves more media coverage than the decline of the middle class, the increase in poverty that we're experiencing or the growing gap between the rich and the poor."
TPMCafe || Table For One: "The reality is that today, a handful of conglomerates such as Viacom, Disney, General Electric, TimeWarner-AOL, Murdoch's News Corporation and a few others have an incredible impact on the flow of information that goes out to the American people, as well as our culture. There is a reason why millions of Americans had to turn to the BBC or the CBC for more objective information on the lead up to the war in Iraq. There is a reason why TV executives believe that the Michael Jackson's trial or Tom Cruise's engagement deserves more media coverage than the decline of the middle class, the increase in poverty that we're experiencing or the growing gap between the rich and the poor."
more , from UCLA economists, on what will happen when the bubble bursts:
UCLA Economists Still See a Bubble in Housing Market: "The state's economy has been boosted artificially by increased spending from Californians feeling wealthier thanks to home price rises of 40% in the last two years, the UCLA forecasters said. When those prices stop rising, consumers will rein in spending, possibly triggering a recession, they said.
And it won't even take home prices to fall, just to flatten out, they said."
UCLA Economists Still See a Bubble in Housing Market: "The state's economy has been boosted artificially by increased spending from Californians feeling wealthier thanks to home price rises of 40% in the last two years, the UCLA forecasters said. When those prices stop rising, consumers will rein in spending, possibly triggering a recession, they said.
And it won't even take home prices to fall, just to flatten out, they said."
this is not about houseboate: its about water (over)use in the west, Colorado River Resevoirs, and restoring Glenn Canyon
Houseboat Heaven: Flush It
Houseboat Heaven: Flush It
book marketing 695--- the grad course
and anna- she lives in western new hampshire
For This Author, Writing Is Only the Beginning - New York Times: "She does not simply plan an event and expect people to show up, however. Evanovich Inc. constantly reminds its audience of a coming book, using its Internet site and a snail-mail newsletter, television commercials and radio spots. Ms. Evanovich oversees the design of book covers and the production of advertisements; she recently fired the agency that was devising commercials for 'Eleven on Top' and enlisted her family and publisher to come up with a new pitch.
Behind the marketing machinations is Alexandra, 32, who writes the newsletter and illustrates both it and the Web site, www.evanovich.com. Until recently, she also managed the online store that sells hats, mugs and other paraphernalia, but its growth forced the family to outsource the job to a company in Florida."
and anna- she lives in western new hampshire
For This Author, Writing Is Only the Beginning - New York Times: "She does not simply plan an event and expect people to show up, however. Evanovich Inc. constantly reminds its audience of a coming book, using its Internet site and a snail-mail newsletter, television commercials and radio spots. Ms. Evanovich oversees the design of book covers and the production of advertisements; she recently fired the agency that was devising commercials for 'Eleven on Top' and enlisted her family and publisher to come up with a new pitch.
Behind the marketing machinations is Alexandra, 32, who writes the newsletter and illustrates both it and the Web site, www.evanovich.com. Until recently, she also managed the online store that sells hats, mugs and other paraphernalia, but its growth forced the family to outsource the job to a company in Florida."
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Recipe for Bubble Bath?
this whole article is about buyers using 4-8 different appraisers until they find one willing to give them an appriasal HIGH ENOUGH to justify their realtors inflated idea about how much the house is worth.
I will parse it paragraph by paragraph next.
Home deals fizzle when appraisals fall short | The Arizona Daily Star �
As if finding a house weren't hard enough in Tucson's tight residential real-estate market, more and more buyers are finding themselves in a pickle when their appraisal comes in below the asking price.
Mortgage firms use appraisals to determine how much they'll lend home buyers. When a home is appraised at less than the sale price, the buyer must come up with more cash, walk away from the deal - or get other appraisals.
"More sales are falling through and those homes are coming back on the market," said Judy Lowe, president of the Tucson Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
According to statistics from the listing service, there were more homes on the market and fewer sold from March through April. The number of homes actively listed for sale on the service increased from 3,493 in March to 3,640 in April.
Appraisals - independent evaluations of a house's value - are done to reassure lenders that they're making a good investment. Bound by ethical rules, federal mortgage guidelines and basic business practices, appraisers must consider how much comparable homes recently sold for. But homes here are appreciating so rapidly it can be hard to match an asking price when a very similar home down the street just sold for $10,000 less.
Costing anywhere from $300 to $1,000, appraisals are usually paid for by the buyer. If one appraisal comes in low, buyers and sellers can ask the appraiser to reconsider or hire another appraiser. Costs can add up.
Nicole and Kevin Schmidtke know all about that. Outbid three times as they looked for houses, they were determined to move into the next one they really liked. They found it in a three-bedroom house built in 2000 near West River Road and North La Cholla Boulevard.
The Schmidtkes bid roughly $20,000 over the asking price, which was near the low $200,000s. But with their first lender, the Schmidtkes' appraisal came in below $200,000. So they went to a different lender who had three more appraisers look at the house. Two of the appraisals were higher than the first, but still lower than the Schmidtkes' bid.
"Nobody would give us what we thought it was worth," said Kandee Myers, the Schmidtkes' real-estate agent.
Myers said the couple would have had to come up with the cash to pay the difference, according to a requirement in their agreement with the seller. They were prepared to abandon the deal and start pounding the pavement again.
Then hope came. An almost identical house just down the street was placed on the market for $10,000 more than the Schmidtkes bid for the home they wanted. They went to a third lender, who had five more appraisers look at the house.
At last, two appraisals matched the asking price. The couple closed on the home June 9.
"They came up with two (appraisers) that found ways to make the market research match what we were buying. We didn't feel like we were paying too much for the home," Nicole Schmidtke said. "We knew, based on what we had seen in other neighborhoods, this was a better house."
Buyers often need to be willing to pay more than the asking price and to put in multiple bids these days, said Paul Volpe of Nova Home Loans, which financed the Schmidtkes' mortgage. And there are few mid-priced homes available.
"You've got very, very little inventory, especially under the $300,000 range. It becomes a bidding war and it's not unusual to see a purchase price come in 10, 20, 30 thousand over the list price," Volpe said.
Volpe said appraisers should consider pending sales, in which homes are in escrow and the sale price may be higher than the asking price.
Low appraisals are a "phenomenon" in the market now because prices have risen so quickly, said Cary Ridenour, a senior vice president and co-founder of Charter Funding, a local lender.
"I haven't seen it increase this dramatically since we opened this company" in 1996, he said.
From March 2004 to March 2005, the median home price increased 11.4 percent nationally and 21.4 percent locally.
When appraisals come in low, buyers often find ways to come up with more cash, Ridenour said. Failed deals because of low appraisals are "happening a little more" but still are not common, he said.
The issue will begin to resolve itself as Tucson's housing market slows. In a slower market, there won't be such large price differences between one sale and the next.
"Right now people refer to it as a bubble, and Tucson seems to be on a bigger bubble than most of the rest of the nation, so you always want to be careful," Ridenour said. "But this thing could keep going and going."
The hot market is tough for appraisers, too, said Sarah C. Vetault, a certified residential appraiser in Tucson and a member of the Arizona Board of Appraisal.
Appraisers are constrained because they must look at homes that have closed on escrow, a requirement under most lending requirements. It is true that closed sales are lagging behind bidding prices.
"The market is not really uniformly moving up. There are many times where closed sales don't support bidding prices. Most times, an appraiser who's doing a thorough job can document that and things are OK," Vetault said. "Other times, there aren't multiple offers and there's just available listings that don't support it."
Still, fizzled deals aren't a sign that a perceived real-estate "bubble" is about to pop, said Mike Waling of Casas Adobes Realty.
"I believe that the market, to some degree, is being adjusted in a false sense because appraisers are dictating by their appraisals, dictating the market," Waling said. "What is value? In my mind, a value is what an informed buyer is willing to pay and a willing seller is willing to sell."
Glenn Bancroft, a real-estate agent and founder of Bancroft & Associates, offers another theory for why more appraisals are coming in low.
"It's from (real-estate) agents who are not necessarily, in my opinion, being honest with their clients," he said. "If a client wants $400,000 for a $350,000 house and then it will appraise for $350,000, well, that's the way it's supposed to be. Just because you want a particular dollar amount for your house doesn't mean that's what it's worth."
this whole article is about buyers using 4-8 different appraisers until they find one willing to give them an appriasal HIGH ENOUGH to justify their realtors inflated idea about how much the house is worth.
I will parse it paragraph by paragraph next.
Home deals fizzle when appraisals fall short | The Arizona Daily Star �
As if finding a house weren't hard enough in Tucson's tight residential real-estate market, more and more buyers are finding themselves in a pickle when their appraisal comes in below the asking price.
Mortgage firms use appraisals to determine how much they'll lend home buyers. When a home is appraised at less than the sale price, the buyer must come up with more cash, walk away from the deal - or get other appraisals.
"More sales are falling through and those homes are coming back on the market," said Judy Lowe, president of the Tucson Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
According to statistics from the listing service, there were more homes on the market and fewer sold from March through April. The number of homes actively listed for sale on the service increased from 3,493 in March to 3,640 in April.
Appraisals - independent evaluations of a house's value - are done to reassure lenders that they're making a good investment. Bound by ethical rules, federal mortgage guidelines and basic business practices, appraisers must consider how much comparable homes recently sold for. But homes here are appreciating so rapidly it can be hard to match an asking price when a very similar home down the street just sold for $10,000 less.
Costing anywhere from $300 to $1,000, appraisals are usually paid for by the buyer. If one appraisal comes in low, buyers and sellers can ask the appraiser to reconsider or hire another appraiser. Costs can add up.
Nicole and Kevin Schmidtke know all about that. Outbid three times as they looked for houses, they were determined to move into the next one they really liked. They found it in a three-bedroom house built in 2000 near West River Road and North La Cholla Boulevard.
The Schmidtkes bid roughly $20,000 over the asking price, which was near the low $200,000s. But with their first lender, the Schmidtkes' appraisal came in below $200,000. So they went to a different lender who had three more appraisers look at the house. Two of the appraisals were higher than the first, but still lower than the Schmidtkes' bid.
"Nobody would give us what we thought it was worth," said Kandee Myers, the Schmidtkes' real-estate agent.
Myers said the couple would have had to come up with the cash to pay the difference, according to a requirement in their agreement with the seller. They were prepared to abandon the deal and start pounding the pavement again.
Then hope came. An almost identical house just down the street was placed on the market for $10,000 more than the Schmidtkes bid for the home they wanted. They went to a third lender, who had five more appraisers look at the house.
At last, two appraisals matched the asking price. The couple closed on the home June 9.
"They came up with two (appraisers) that found ways to make the market research match what we were buying. We didn't feel like we were paying too much for the home," Nicole Schmidtke said. "We knew, based on what we had seen in other neighborhoods, this was a better house."
Buyers often need to be willing to pay more than the asking price and to put in multiple bids these days, said Paul Volpe of Nova Home Loans, which financed the Schmidtkes' mortgage. And there are few mid-priced homes available.
"You've got very, very little inventory, especially under the $300,000 range. It becomes a bidding war and it's not unusual to see a purchase price come in 10, 20, 30 thousand over the list price," Volpe said.
Volpe said appraisers should consider pending sales, in which homes are in escrow and the sale price may be higher than the asking price.
Low appraisals are a "phenomenon" in the market now because prices have risen so quickly, said Cary Ridenour, a senior vice president and co-founder of Charter Funding, a local lender.
"I haven't seen it increase this dramatically since we opened this company" in 1996, he said.
From March 2004 to March 2005, the median home price increased 11.4 percent nationally and 21.4 percent locally.
When appraisals come in low, buyers often find ways to come up with more cash, Ridenour said. Failed deals because of low appraisals are "happening a little more" but still are not common, he said.
The issue will begin to resolve itself as Tucson's housing market slows. In a slower market, there won't be such large price differences between one sale and the next.
"Right now people refer to it as a bubble, and Tucson seems to be on a bigger bubble than most of the rest of the nation, so you always want to be careful," Ridenour said. "But this thing could keep going and going."
The hot market is tough for appraisers, too, said Sarah C. Vetault, a certified residential appraiser in Tucson and a member of the Arizona Board of Appraisal.
Appraisers are constrained because they must look at homes that have closed on escrow, a requirement under most lending requirements. It is true that closed sales are lagging behind bidding prices.
"The market is not really uniformly moving up. There are many times where closed sales don't support bidding prices. Most times, an appraiser who's doing a thorough job can document that and things are OK," Vetault said. "Other times, there aren't multiple offers and there's just available listings that don't support it."
Still, fizzled deals aren't a sign that a perceived real-estate "bubble" is about to pop, said Mike Waling of Casas Adobes Realty.
"I believe that the market, to some degree, is being adjusted in a false sense because appraisers are dictating by their appraisals, dictating the market," Waling said. "What is value? In my mind, a value is what an informed buyer is willing to pay and a willing seller is willing to sell."
Glenn Bancroft, a real-estate agent and founder of Bancroft & Associates, offers another theory for why more appraisals are coming in low.
"It's from (real-estate) agents who are not necessarily, in my opinion, being honest with their clients," he said. "If a client wants $400,000 for a $350,000 house and then it will appraise for $350,000, well, that's the way it's supposed to be. Just because you want a particular dollar amount for your house doesn't mean that's what it's worth."
Bubble or not?
So, the world is obsessed with real estate and thus there can be no going back. Or, it’s a bubble, and it’s bound to end soon. Which is it? Of course, no one knows. After years of obsessive fascination with booms and busts, depressions and recessions and crashes- I think the one thing that can be said is that although the bubble itself is often perceptible, no one can predict exactly how—or when—it will all come crashing down.
So, with that in mind boys and girls, I thought it would be more valuable to speculate on what might happen if it is indeed a bubble. First of all, you won’t know when the end comes. It will most likely sneak up on you. As the wall street journal said in an article yesterday, people don’t all of a sudden sell the house like they might sell their stock portfolio. Even if they are margined to the hilt, they don’t get the infamous margin call: the house does not go on the market the next day.
But I thought I’d use the experience of the crash of 1988 in the oil belt: Houston, Oklahoma City, Anchorage and all of Alaska. Here’s what happened in Alaska. First was the oil pipeline boom. As construction ramped up, the state was flooded with new workers, and everyone needed housing. Lenders loosened up on the rules to get houses built fast. And they were bought as fast as they could be built. Then came the oil royalty boom: the state allocated money for new construction projects faster than you could spit. Another construction boom, and houses did not loose value, so they must gain value, right? Then came the precipitous drop in oil prices- the state, having eliminated all forms of taxation was wholly dependent on the oil companies, and had to cut the budget not only for construction projects but for services. The cuts radiated down through local governments and the universities and then the schools. And on and on. People who had moved to Anchorage in the previous few years had bought houses at the top of the market, in 1986. They were also the people who lost their jobs first. So they put their homes on the market, and when they did not, could not, sell for what they owed, they walked away….. gave the keys to the bank. [Do the math: you bought the house for $150,000, 10% down, you owe $135,000, and it might sell for 115,000. You owe more than its worth.] And these were not only state workers: companies posted new managers to Alaska to get in on the boom, and pulled them out just as fast when it crashed. Condo buyers were in even worse shape, as potential buyers could buy a single family house for the same price.
Now, the boom in the 1980s still required borrowers to put down 10 or 20%. There were no interest only mortgages. And few units were sold to real estate speculators. In the most worrisome development of the recent boom is that in some markets, like Tucson, as many as one third of the buyers are investors. So, around Tucson, you see “For Rent” signs cropping up like weeds. What is going to happen is that first, the investors who cannot afford to hold the property without the rent income are going to cash in. Then the percentage of owners who have to sell because of a move, transfer or divorce are going to have to put their homes on the market. These homes will compete with those of the investors. The prices will go down, a significant portion will go into foreclosure as the owners walk away, just as they did in the eighties. Prices will fall. But it won’t be widespread, at first. Maybe there will still be investors willing to make the bet on the lower priced housing stock and the foreclosures. But, soon after, the investors will spook. One third of the buyers will exit the market probably all at once, pulling the floor out from under house prices.
This is what will happen in Tucson, Alaska and peripheral markets. But what will happen in the center of the bubble: Washington DC, California, New York, and Florida. This is where the talking heads and prognosticators keep saying the demand is driving the prices. Each may be a unique situation. Switch over to PBS for the documentary about the middle-income couples from the mid-west buying not one, but three yet-to-be-built condos in Florida. When your grandmother’s Hispanic hairdresser’s uncle is buying real estate for an investment, this is a bubble. So, same thing as Tucson, only faster. Developers with highly leveraged and unsold stock will dump it on the market at rock bottom prices, as will the banks that are left holding the bag.
Californai is always a special situation. “San Francisco and Bay area real estate will always go up.” Is this a law of god? The bay area golden egg will crack from the outside in. Many people are going further and further from the core to buy cheaper houses. These people will be the first to bail. The prices will crash first on the outer rim. This will soften prices on the next close concentric ring of communities. This will soften prices in the core areas of san Francisco, Silicon Valley and Berkeley. But, if the house you bought ten years ago for $300,000 is valued now at $500,000 instead of $650,000 have you lost money? The answer to this question is “no” unless you have borrowed on the home equity above the new lower value of the home.
So the stble homeowners will probably not be hurt. Those hurt will be the last in. And of those, only those who borrowed more than the house’s new value. And those who have to sell because of circumstances. Even people who have to sell will not be devastated unless they borrowed more than the hosue was worth. The worrisome trend here is the vast number of people who have been convinced that they can and, thus should, buy a $450,000 condo in downtown Los Altos with nothing down and an interest only mortgage. And this is the trend that probably describes overheated markets like Washington, Boston and New York as well.
So, what should you do? Is there anything worth buying? My next edition will tackle that problem.
Real Estate, the Global Obsession - New York Times
So, the world is obsessed with real estate and thus there can be no going back. Or, it’s a bubble, and it’s bound to end soon. Which is it? Of course, no one knows. After years of obsessive fascination with booms and busts, depressions and recessions and crashes- I think the one thing that can be said is that although the bubble itself is often perceptible, no one can predict exactly how—or when—it will all come crashing down.
So, with that in mind boys and girls, I thought it would be more valuable to speculate on what might happen if it is indeed a bubble. First of all, you won’t know when the end comes. It will most likely sneak up on you. As the wall street journal said in an article yesterday, people don’t all of a sudden sell the house like they might sell their stock portfolio. Even if they are margined to the hilt, they don’t get the infamous margin call: the house does not go on the market the next day.
But I thought I’d use the experience of the crash of 1988 in the oil belt: Houston, Oklahoma City, Anchorage and all of Alaska. Here’s what happened in Alaska. First was the oil pipeline boom. As construction ramped up, the state was flooded with new workers, and everyone needed housing. Lenders loosened up on the rules to get houses built fast. And they were bought as fast as they could be built. Then came the oil royalty boom: the state allocated money for new construction projects faster than you could spit. Another construction boom, and houses did not loose value, so they must gain value, right? Then came the precipitous drop in oil prices- the state, having eliminated all forms of taxation was wholly dependent on the oil companies, and had to cut the budget not only for construction projects but for services. The cuts radiated down through local governments and the universities and then the schools. And on and on. People who had moved to Anchorage in the previous few years had bought houses at the top of the market, in 1986. They were also the people who lost their jobs first. So they put their homes on the market, and when they did not, could not, sell for what they owed, they walked away….. gave the keys to the bank. [Do the math: you bought the house for $150,000, 10% down, you owe $135,000, and it might sell for 115,000. You owe more than its worth.] And these were not only state workers: companies posted new managers to Alaska to get in on the boom, and pulled them out just as fast when it crashed. Condo buyers were in even worse shape, as potential buyers could buy a single family house for the same price.
Now, the boom in the 1980s still required borrowers to put down 10 or 20%. There were no interest only mortgages. And few units were sold to real estate speculators. In the most worrisome development of the recent boom is that in some markets, like Tucson, as many as one third of the buyers are investors. So, around Tucson, you see “For Rent” signs cropping up like weeds. What is going to happen is that first, the investors who cannot afford to hold the property without the rent income are going to cash in. Then the percentage of owners who have to sell because of a move, transfer or divorce are going to have to put their homes on the market. These homes will compete with those of the investors. The prices will go down, a significant portion will go into foreclosure as the owners walk away, just as they did in the eighties. Prices will fall. But it won’t be widespread, at first. Maybe there will still be investors willing to make the bet on the lower priced housing stock and the foreclosures. But, soon after, the investors will spook. One third of the buyers will exit the market probably all at once, pulling the floor out from under house prices.
This is what will happen in Tucson, Alaska and peripheral markets. But what will happen in the center of the bubble: Washington DC, California, New York, and Florida. This is where the talking heads and prognosticators keep saying the demand is driving the prices. Each may be a unique situation. Switch over to PBS for the documentary about the middle-income couples from the mid-west buying not one, but three yet-to-be-built condos in Florida. When your grandmother’s Hispanic hairdresser’s uncle is buying real estate for an investment, this is a bubble. So, same thing as Tucson, only faster. Developers with highly leveraged and unsold stock will dump it on the market at rock bottom prices, as will the banks that are left holding the bag.
Californai is always a special situation. “San Francisco and Bay area real estate will always go up.” Is this a law of god? The bay area golden egg will crack from the outside in. Many people are going further and further from the core to buy cheaper houses. These people will be the first to bail. The prices will crash first on the outer rim. This will soften prices on the next close concentric ring of communities. This will soften prices in the core areas of san Francisco, Silicon Valley and Berkeley. But, if the house you bought ten years ago for $300,000 is valued now at $500,000 instead of $650,000 have you lost money? The answer to this question is “no” unless you have borrowed on the home equity above the new lower value of the home.
So the stble homeowners will probably not be hurt. Those hurt will be the last in. And of those, only those who borrowed more than the house’s new value. And those who have to sell because of circumstances. Even people who have to sell will not be devastated unless they borrowed more than the hosue was worth. The worrisome trend here is the vast number of people who have been convinced that they can and, thus should, buy a $450,000 condo in downtown Los Altos with nothing down and an interest only mortgage. And this is the trend that probably describes overheated markets like Washington, Boston and New York as well.
So, what should you do? Is there anything worth buying? My next edition will tackle that problem.
Real Estate, the Global Obsession - New York Times
Saturday, June 18, 2005
applying Frankfurt's bullshit theory to David Horowitz
History News Network: "It has been heartening to witness the recent runaway success of Princeton emeritus Harry G. Frankfurt�s latest book, On Bullshit. First published as an essay in 1988, Frankfurt�s splendid study is largely an effort to distinguish between lies and bullshit. A liar, Frankfurt notes, acknowledges truth-systems yet tries to pass off information that is not true. �Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth,� he tells us, �are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game.� The bullshitter, by contrast, fails to really acknowledge the validity of any truth-claims or truth-systems.
The author concludes that �the fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.�
When applying Frankfurt�s useful distinction, we need, at the very least, to recognize that if something about a particular piece of bullshit happens to be true this does not make it any less bullshit, and that lies and bullshit are by no means mutually exclusive.
Enter L.A. tabloid editor David Horowitz, liar extraordinaire and author of the incomparable bullshitting manual The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits (Spence Publishing, 2000). This book, much applauded by Karl Rove, promulgates a political endgame in which brute force triumphs over any notions of intelligence, truth or fair play. The author contends that �[y]ou cannot cripple an opponent by outwitting him in a political debate. You can only do it by following Lenin�s injunc"
History News Network: "It has been heartening to witness the recent runaway success of Princeton emeritus Harry G. Frankfurt�s latest book, On Bullshit. First published as an essay in 1988, Frankfurt�s splendid study is largely an effort to distinguish between lies and bullshit. A liar, Frankfurt notes, acknowledges truth-systems yet tries to pass off information that is not true. �Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth,� he tells us, �are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game.� The bullshitter, by contrast, fails to really acknowledge the validity of any truth-claims or truth-systems.
The author concludes that �the fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.�
When applying Frankfurt�s useful distinction, we need, at the very least, to recognize that if something about a particular piece of bullshit happens to be true this does not make it any less bullshit, and that lies and bullshit are by no means mutually exclusive.
Enter L.A. tabloid editor David Horowitz, liar extraordinaire and author of the incomparable bullshitting manual The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits (Spence Publishing, 2000). This book, much applauded by Karl Rove, promulgates a political endgame in which brute force triumphs over any notions of intelligence, truth or fair play. The author contends that �[y]ou cannot cripple an opponent by outwitting him in a political debate. You can only do it by following Lenin�s injunc"
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Inquiring minds want to know...
people have been asking me if I know anything about the polygamists in arizona, the subject of a book by John Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven.
this group, is the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, FLDS. They claim that their adherance to polygamy is what separates them from the modern Mormans. And news reporters constantly reinforce this impression by repeating this claim. But this allegation fails to account for the bizarre oings on at their communities includingColorado City Arizona and Hillsdale Utah, as well as others in B.C. This group has all the earmarks of a cult- total control by the prohpet of money lives and resources, mind control and brainwashing, and a closed society where children have virtually no contact with the outside world.
A close reading of reports spells out the unilateral control excercised by the churches "Prophet" through the Untied Effort Trust. The church embers must give the trust all money and property- the trust owns all of the land in the communities, and failure to follow directives of the prophet can lead to excommunication and eviction from homes. Current Prophet, Warren Jeffs even 'redistributes' wives and children of men he excommunicates, treating them just like property.
Now, some have sought to defend polygamy as simply another lifestoyel choice. this would be one thing, if the participants actually had a choice. In fact, this cult grants ultimate aouthority to the prophet who is the only one who can decide who marries. Men are coopted as they marry more than one wife, and then af=re forced to allow their daughters to marry already married older men or face eviction of their multiple families. Women are virtually given away to older men as teenagers. Jeffs recently evicted a large group of younger men, ages 13-21, might have expected to marry the women their own age.
This IS NOT polygamy as a religious, sexual or lifestyle chouce. this is a cult.
Articles below provide details, for more, google on "FLDS united effort plan"
FLDS :: Lawsuits and Governmental Scrutiny Increase Pressure on Polygamist Sect: "FLDS members consider themselves fundamentalist practitioners because they continue to practice polygamy as Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commanded. Smith's teachings remain in Mormon scripture"
people have been asking me if I know anything about the polygamists in arizona, the subject of a book by John Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven.
this group, is the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, FLDS. They claim that their adherance to polygamy is what separates them from the modern Mormans. And news reporters constantly reinforce this impression by repeating this claim. But this allegation fails to account for the bizarre oings on at their communities includingColorado City Arizona and Hillsdale Utah, as well as others in B.C. This group has all the earmarks of a cult- total control by the prohpet of money lives and resources, mind control and brainwashing, and a closed society where children have virtually no contact with the outside world.
A close reading of reports spells out the unilateral control excercised by the churches "Prophet" through the Untied Effort Trust. The church embers must give the trust all money and property- the trust owns all of the land in the communities, and failure to follow directives of the prophet can lead to excommunication and eviction from homes. Current Prophet, Warren Jeffs even 'redistributes' wives and children of men he excommunicates, treating them just like property.
Now, some have sought to defend polygamy as simply another lifestoyel choice. this would be one thing, if the participants actually had a choice. In fact, this cult grants ultimate aouthority to the prophet who is the only one who can decide who marries. Men are coopted as they marry more than one wife, and then af=re forced to allow their daughters to marry already married older men or face eviction of their multiple families. Women are virtually given away to older men as teenagers. Jeffs recently evicted a large group of younger men, ages 13-21, might have expected to marry the women their own age.
This IS NOT polygamy as a religious, sexual or lifestyle chouce. this is a cult.
Articles below provide details, for more, google on "FLDS united effort plan"
FLDS :: Lawsuits and Governmental Scrutiny Increase Pressure on Polygamist Sect: "FLDS members consider themselves fundamentalist practitioners because they continue to practice polygamy as Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commanded. Smith's teachings remain in Mormon scripture"
More about the FLDS and how they manage to maintain hegemony over land and members in Colorado City , Arizona and their other communities through their trust, in this series of articles regarding a lawsuit.
Lenore Holm
Lenore Holm
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
can't resist posting this- no comment
HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
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