Realtors Crying Because The New Rules Are 'too tough'

Looks like the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) is really getting squeezed. Two stories out in the last week demonstrate that they pine for the old days where they could take their 5% of ridiculously inflated prices and live like kings. Take for example:

• Realtors are upset about new rules requiring that appraisals be done without any pressure from mortgage originators. They call them 'faulty' because the old way, letting appraisers value a house at whatever it was listed for, worked out so well (for them).
• They're also upset that those big old mean banks are refusing to eat millions of dollars in short sale losses. They think the banks are being too harsh on the poor home owner who wants to bail on their mortgage and leave the bank to absorb $10,000 - $100,000 + worth of bad debt. The NAR of course, is upset because they're not getting their 5% on the short sale. They say that only by reducing housing inventory will the market get healthy again. I note that they are not willing to split the loss with the bank to help 'reduce the inventory'.

I'm sure the NAR is probably getting lots of sad calls from their membership indicating the trouble they are having paying their Lexus/Mercedes lease payments with the market being what it is. But the idea that the NAR is even slightly concerned about the economy at large is laughable. Banks cannot afford to lose all this money any more than the NAR can and the faulty appraisals were a primary facilitator of what got us into this mess in the first place!

Opera May Be On To Something....Big

Opera, the 'also ran' browser of late, may have finally hit onto something big. They promised to reinvent the web, and while I'm not prepared to go that far, I will say what they've done will no doubt have Firefox, IE and Chrome scrambling to copy it's features. Their new product, Opera Unite is here:

http://unite.opera.com/

What does it do that's so cool? Well it basically turns your PC into a server.....easily with point and click "services" that you install (it appears most of what they have now comes with the initial download). For example you can now, super easily:

• Set up a file server and send just a URL to your friends to have them download files. Imagine sending grandma a URL where she can download your family photos, all (at least for now) securely.
• Actually host websites from your PC (your Internet service provider may not be all that happy...)
• Set up a photo sharing site (similar to the file server
• Access your PCs music library and play those files from anywhere over the Internet.
• Set up a private chat room with your friends.
• Set up a virtual 'fridge' for your friends to leave notes

And that's just for starters. I'm sure there are going to be bugs. But rest assured that people at Mozilla Firefox, Google and ID are scrambling right now to copy these very cool features.

It's now available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Do you whistle while you work?

Then please stop. It's annoying.

Stock Market Prediction: Take Two

Ok, Here goes my second prediction on the stock market. Back in October I predicted the DJIA would fall to 7,500 within 30 days. It did lose 481 points during that period, but wasn't as bad as I had predicted. But I did note that on March 6, 2009, it was only ~100 points from my previously rediculous sounding prediction. I figure my timing is a bit off.

So here's my second go. In the next 90 days (including the 90th day...a larger time frame to account for my inaccuracy) the DJIA will drop to or below 6,500 at least once.

Today's close was: 8,612.13

I guess we'll see on 9/14/2009 or sooner.

You Know It's A Crazy, Mixed Up World

When one of the primary tools of a police state, surveillance, comes back to haunt the police. In the last few weeks, I've seen a couple of stories that highlight the new danger police face: Someone is almost always watching you.

We first really saw its power in the Rodney King case, but now surveillance cameras (aka "security cameras") are becoming ubiquitous. It's getting to the point where a corrupt cop can't even go about his/her business without having to deal with perjury charges. Take for example these two recent cases:

• Drug suspects’ defense against NYPD? Video
• Accused of lying, officer suspended
• Surveillance video shows police beating man in elevator (more on this one "But after seeing the video obtained by Ortiz's defense attorney, Stephen Melnick, prosecutors downgraded the charge to a misdemeanor resisting charge. Upon further review, prosecutors dropped the case entirely". And of course the kicker: "Fort Lauderdale police internal affairs investigators reviewed the incident more than a month ago and found no violations of policy or procedures, said Sgt. Frank Sousa, the department's spokesman."

So how is it going to be fixed? Your guess is as good as mine. For the hand-held camera, we have already seen that police are very willing to arrest the camera-man for interfering with 'police business'. However, stationary cameras present a unique problem. I think maybe we'll see a wave of Security Camera Legislation requiring a lengthy process to get a permit from the police to use a security camera. But until then, I'm sure these stories will just keep on rolling in.

Chinese Company to Buy Hummer

Well, I hope they know that Hummers get like 8 MPG. But this is the clearest example that the Chinese are going to cash in their dissolving dollars for real assets.

Americans are going to have a hard time swallowing the idea that to get better, we must sell off the last manufacturing capability we have and become totally dependent on China.

An American MP Scandal?

Looks like the Wall Street Journal is trying to follow in the footsteps of the Daily Telegraph in pointing out the misuse of taxpayer money by politicians. Let's see if the spark catches.

Good Movies/Shows For Netflix Watch Instantly

I just purchased a Roku player (after a while of toying with the idea of building my own media center PC). So far, it's better than I expected. This $100 device lets you stream Netflix 'watch instantly' movies (and Amazon.com video on demand movies) to your television. The only downside I've seen is that the selection of movies is somewhat limited.

That doesn't mean that there's nothing good to watch however. I've looked on-line to see if anyone else has recommended some good movies to watch, but the only sites I've found are pretty outdated. I will keep a log here of watch now available films that I've watched which are worth the time. Let me know if you've found this useful:

• Pan's Labyrinth
• Let The Right One In
• Waco: The Rules of Engagement
• Man on Wire
• The Endless Summer
• The King of Kong
• The Green Mile
• The Shawshank Redemption: Special Edition
• Capturing the Friedmans
• Survivorman: Season 1
• Enter the Dragon: Special Edition
• The Exorcist
• Heroes (First season, so far, has been excellent)
• The IT Crowd (First two episodes are slow, but it's very funny by the 3rd)
  

Free Tade And Government Bailouts

Where is the World Trade Organization? I read yesterday that the government will soon own 75% of GM. Yet no one is talking about government subsidies (low interest loans, direct payments, bailouts, etc) distorting "free trade". I wonder why? Just a few years ago the WTO was ranting about how the US government 'supports' Boeing through R&D payments. Yet not a peep on the massive US and European bailouts.

Maybe they're figuring it all works out in the end if GM exports jobs along with their vehicles.

Remember That You Read It

5/27/2009

"WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 90 percent of economists predict the recession will end this year, although the recovery is likely to be bumpy.

That assessment came from leading forecasters in a survey by the National Association for Business Economics released Wednesday. It is generally in line with the outlook from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues."

"More than 90 %" Eh? Too bad they didn't list names. I don't know anything about NABE, but I suspect they're about as good as the National Association of Realtors at predicting the economy.

Darwinius Fraudious?

So am I the only person who is slightly suspicious that a fossil found 23 years ago, held in a 'private collection' and 're-discovered' 2 years ago, studied in secret and announced to the world as "THE MISSING LINK", might actually be some sort of fraud? I mean the guy who had it for 23 years and apparently wasn't aware of its significance sold it for $1,000,000. Does that sound like someone who has no idea of it's value?

The stampede to embrace this alleged discovery is astounding. Every media outlet is running with this story (Google even put up a special image of the fossil on their page), even though very few other scientists have even had a chance to look at this fossil before it's declared to be 'the one'. Keeping in mind a few other discoveries of late, the Peon Pulpit's official position is that this is a hoax until proven otherwise (or at least 50 years has past).

Anytime you see a scientific announcement preceded by a movie and a book deal, be afraid...be very afraid. Clearly the value of the book tie-in (read: almighty dollar) has not been lost on these scientists.

Travel Channel Has A Winner

Dhani Tackles the Globe. This show is actually pretty good. Too bad I caught it near the end of the season. I'm not sure if Dhani Jones is any good at football, but he probably has a career in television.

Don't Look Now...But The UK Is About To Catch Fire

If you haven't been following the growing scandal in the UK, now might be a good time to get acquainted with it. What's happened is a common product of when the easy money get's tight: All the fraud is exposed like coral at low tide.

Just like the Bernie Maddoff scandal here in the US, the Daily Telegraph has set alight a fire in England. The Telegraph leaked expense documents for Members of Parliament which show they were abusing their privilege of tax write-offs and government funded expense accounts. Some of the abuses border on criminal. But what did the Labor Party government of Gordon Brown do? They indicated that they would prosecute the person who leaked the documents! Never mind that it was the public's money.

Then the tide suddenly turned. Suddenly the MPs started to worry about the real possibility of pitchforks and bonfires. Now they're sheepishly announcing that they're 'paying back' the money, but all the while still claiming it was all on the up-and-up. Clearly it's not. And since when was agreeing to give back stolen goods enough to just walk away from a theft? I suspect Gordon Brown and the Labor Party will not recover from this one. Keep an eye on this, it might erupt into street violence....who knows these days.

Every day more details leak out. I wonder how long it will be before the same happens in this country?

The Peon Pulpit Reviews The Graduate (1967)

So last night I watched the 1967 classic "The Graduate" staring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft. Overall, I'd give this movie a 5 out of 10. I fail to see why it was such a great American classic...but whatever.

One thing that did strike me as odd, is that what I thought happened in the movie, wasn't what other people thought. Of course, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. But happening with such a 'classic' makes me wonder if maybe I'm wearing those sun glasses from They Live or just simply deranged.

(SPOILER ALERT!)

My version of what happened was this: Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has an affair with a much older married woman Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). At some point in the film Benjamin asks Mrs. Robinson about how she got married to Mr. Robinson. It comes out that Mrs. Robinson was pregnant with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross), and that's why she got married. When Benjamin suggests he might go out with Elaine, Mrs. Robinson suddenly flips out and basically threatens Benjamin with death if he even contemplates going out with Elaine. The rest of the movie is basically Benjamin falling in love and Mrs. Robinson doing everything she can to stop it.

So why does Mrs. Robinson flip out at the idea of Benjamin dating Elaine? The IMDB gives two reasons, neither of which are mine.....and I think mine makes a LOT more sense.

The reason is that Elaine is Benjamin's half sister. It's clear that Benjamin's dad and Elaine's dad are business partners, and probably have known each other since college. Mrs. Robinson must have had an affair with Benjamin's dad, got pregnant and told Mr. Robinson that he was the father. Mrs. Robinson clearly knows the truth however, but can't let it come out now after all these years. This dark secret is so enormous that she's willing to tell her daughter about her affair with Ben, hastily arrange her daughter to be married to someone else and even claim to be raped by Ben.

And in my version...the very awkward bus ride at the end where Benjamin's smile turns to a blank stare, indicates that he had just started to figure it all out himself....

Swine Flu Pandemic - Added to the MMHOD

Swine flu pandemic has been added to the Mainstream Media Hall Of Doom!

Willis Carrier Inducted into the Hall of Greatness

For inventing air conditioning.

Peon Pulpit Predicts US Government Crackdown On Political Blog(s)

While my (very short) prediction track record has not been all that great.... The Pulpit is now predicting that a government agency will crack down on (and, at least temporarily, shut down) one or more well known political blogs within the next 2 years. The time range is long, but the prediction is that this will create a 1st Amendment 'crisis' in the US.

This predicted crack down will likely be done with the excuse that the blog(s) in question are in some vague manner inciting either violence or economic instability, but could be done under the guise of some other unforeseen criminal act.

Peon Pulpit's Hall Of Greatness

This is where the Peon Pulpit honors the great works. While many of the artists/works recognized here have been honored elsewhere for their greatness, a secondary focus of this area will be to honor those that have been maligned, under-rated, ignored or possibly even scorned unjustly.

Basically this is just an excuse to give 'props' to stuff and people I like.

And now, The Inductees (In No Particular Order):

MUSIC

• Hall & Oats - While they have a very strong portfolio of music from the '70's and '80's, their induction into the Hall Of Greatness can be justified on the strength of the song "She's Gone" alone. Wow...I love that song.
  
• The Carpenters - For their entire catalog of music.
• Skinny Puppy - For their entire catalog of music. And for stuff like this & this.
  
• White Zombie - Exclusively For La Sexorcisto. Certainly one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
• The Three Degrees - For the song "When Will I See You Again"
• Townes Van Zandt - For his entire catalog.
• Michael Martin Murphey - For the song "Wildfire"
• Rush - Do you really need to ask?
• Hector Berlioz - Entire Catalog of music.
• The Cure - Entire Catalog, but in particular the album Pornography
  
• XTC - Entire Catalog

 
FILM

• The Matrix - One of the greatest Sci-fi movies of all time
  

TELEVISION
INVENTORS

• Willis Carrier - For inventing modern air conditioning
  

BOOKS
FOOD

• Typhoo Tea

PRODUCTS

• 3M Command Strips
• RIM Blackberry
  

OTHER ARTISTS

• Bill Hicks (Comedy)
• Clarence John Laughlin (photography)
  

Started 01/02/2009

UN Says 'Social Unrest' Is A Possibility; GM Asks For Another $2.6 billion in subsidies

UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that the economic crisis could lead to widespread social unrest. Is that a threat or a prediction? Hard to tell.

GM asked for $2.6 billion in 'low interest loans" (i.e., subsidies) in order to build Hybrids. Oh, so now you need money to build Hybrids?? This from the company that was going to bring us the all electric Chevy Volt (and the EV-1, which they quietly killed back in the 90's.....smart move!).

How much longer can the US subsidize domestic auto manufactures before someone complains to the WTO? Isn't this what free trade isn't all about? I'm sure the automakers are just the tip of the iceberg...

Obama Gets Tough With American Automakers

By giving them more money. What, is this a joke? He's going to cover their warranty costs for them by making sure everyone knows Uncle Sam has the warranty covered.

If the news wasn't so adamant about telling me that this was "tough love" and that "frustrated Americans" (and just how many Americans were surveyed for that article??) were happy he was getting tough, I might just think Obama just caved in.

And this startled me: "Fiat is prepared to transfer its cutting-edge technology to Chrysler," he said. Fiat? Maybe things have changed since my mom's Fiat X1/9 was built....one would hope.