In last month's violent confrontation between the ShamWow Guy and a South Beach prostitute, there is no doubt which combatant took the worst of the battle. As seen in the below mug shot and the profile here, Sasha Harris, 26, was left with a pair of black eyes and other injuries after tangling with Vince Shlomi, 44, in a room at the swanky Setai hotel. As TSG previously reported, Shlomi told cops that he met Harris in a Miami Beach nightclub and later paid her about $1000 for "straight sex." But when the TV pitchman tried to kiss Harris, she allegedly bit his tongue and would not let go. Shlomi told cops that he punched Harris several times until she released his bleeding tongue. Shlomi and Harris were both treated at the Mount Sinai Medical Center before being booked for felony aggravated battery (hence the matching hospital smocks). Prosecutors this month declined to pursue formal charges against either brawler.
"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."
Chances are you also understand it. It purports that the order of the letters inside a given word doesn't matter, as long as the first and last letters of each word are in the right place. You can read the words because the human mind reads words as a whole, and not letter-by-letter.
Continued on Page 49
#9
g(r)omgoru nailed it. This idea works as long as you are reading words that you already know. You come to a word that's new to you and you will be stumped. I remember when California tried to abandon phonics in the school system in favor of a "whole language" approach. Total disaster but nothing new for California.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/31/2009 12:47 Comments ||
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#10
Somewhere, a teachers union representative is writing up the lesson plan right now entitled "Spelling is Overrated, So Don't Worry About It"...
Don't you mean: "Smowhaere, a taechres uinon rpresnetatvive si rwiting up teh leson panl rghit nwo enittilded "Splling is ovreated, so dan't weorry abute it."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/31/2009 18:20 Comments ||
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#12
After 40-something years of reading what my dyslexic wife writes, I don't find this surprising at all. It does kind of make it difficult to proof-read stuff if you're in a hurry, though.
RJ - I'd bet good money that more than half of all Rantburgers have an IQ of 130 or over. If they don't have it when they come here, they do after reading this site for two or three years!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/31/2009 18:32 Comments ||
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The mysterious boom and flash of light seen over parts of Virginia Sunday night was not a meteor, but actually exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth, according to an official with the U.S. Naval Observatory.
"I'm pretty convinced that what these folks saw was the second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched the crew up to the space station," said Jeff Chester of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.
Residents of the areas around Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., began calling 911 last night with reports of hearing a loud boom and seeing a streak of light that lit up the sky, according to news reports.
Chester heard about the incident this morning; the Naval Observatory gets plenty of reports of such fireballs and Chester investigated whether it could be a meteor or whether there were "any potential decays of space junk that were coming up," he told SPACE.com. He checked the listing for debris that were expected to enter the lower atmosphere from their decaying orbits around this time period and found that second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched last Thursday was slated to hit during a window that started at 8 p.m. last night.
The Russian-built Soyuz rocket lifted off Thursday from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to launch a new crew and American billionaire Charles Simonyi - the world's first two-time space tourist - to the International Space Station. The spaceflyers arrived at the space station on Saturday. Chester ran a satellite tracking program that showed that the rocket debris should have come down exactly in the area where the fireball was spotted. "This is just too much of a coincidence to be coincidence," he said. He said that U.S. Space Surveillance Network had not yet confirmed that this was the case, but said that he was "99 and four one-hundredths [percent] convinced that this is what it is."
The descriptions of the boom and streak of light reported by local residents were "entirely consistent with re-entering space junk, especially something this big," Chester said.
Delta airline pilot Bryce Debban reported seeing the streak of light on a flight from Boston to Raleigh-Durham when his plane was about 31,000 feet in the air. "We saw it streak across the sky and then blow up," Debban told SPACE.com. "It was brighter than the full moon. It lit up the cockpit as if it were daylight."
James Zimbelman of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences said that the explosion being caused by a re-entering rocket was very plausible. It "sounds all too reasonable," he said. A rocket stage would fragment and explode "just as if it were a meteorite," he said. And the size of the rocket would explain why the explosion was seen over so wide an area.
The Soyuz rockets jettison their second stage after entering orbit in such a way that the second stage will slowly fall back to earth in a few days. But "you can control precisely where these things are going to come down," Chester said. It's possible that some fragments of the rocket made it to the Earth's surface, but they would likely have a couple of hundreds of miles east of Cape Hatteras, Chester said. "I don't think anybody will find anything on land," he said.
#1
I dunno - all of the space junk which I'd seen re-enter Earth o'er the years/decades never moved that fast, nor were that "clean" i.e. no smoking warpy trail. FURTHERMORE, IFF THIS IS THE SAME OBJECT THAT STREAKED PERPENDICULAR OVER GUAM-WESTPAC, MSM-NET NEWS > ITS FINAL TRAJECTORY = END-PATH IS ALL WRONG VEE NEWS MAPS.
USS BOXER, At Sea -- In a show of international sea power in the Gulf of Aden, seven nations representing three task forces coordinated efforts to pursue a skiff after the pirates on board opened fire on a German oiler, the Federal German Ship (FGS) Spessart, March 29.
At approximately 3 p.m. yesterday, FGS Spessart, reported that they were being attacked by pirates who may have mistaken the naval supply ship for a commercial merchant vessel. An embarked security team aboard the ship returned fire on the suspected pirates during the initial attack. Hey, Mahmoud! Can they do that?
Subsequently, Spessart pursued the skiff while providing additional details of the attack to a variety of international naval vessels operating in the area. A number of naval ships and aircraft joined the pursuit, including: the Dutch frigate HNLMS Zeven Provincien, an SH-60B helicopter assigned to the Spanish warship SPS Victoria, a Spanish P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, two Marine Corps helicopters from the Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 flagship USS Boxer (LHD 4) and the European Union's CTF 465 flagship, the Greek frigate HS Psara.
Supported by an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter and a UH-1 Huey assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (Reinforced), "Evil Eyes," embarked aboard Boxer, the international naval forces contained the armed suspects until Psara arrived with a German boarding team. That Cobra could've really ruined their day...
Upon boarding the skiff, the team found seven suspected pirates and their weapons. The suspected pirates were disarmed and transferred to the German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz where they will remain until a final determination is made regarding potential prosecution.
While this event showcased the incredible international naval capabilities operating in the Gulf of Aden, it also highlighted the complexity of counter-piracy operations. The crew of Spessart and the embarked security team provided the critical first line of defense, utilizing defensive measures that are essential for all ships operating in the region. Moreover, nearly five hours transpired between the time Spessart's armed security team thwarted the initial attack and when an armed boarding team was within range of the pirate skiff. In the interim, armed coalition aircraft kept the suspected pirates from getting away.
This incident in the Gulf of Aden happened at a time when other pirates have been operating well off the eastern Somali coast. The area off the coast of Somalia and Kenya when combined with the waters of the Gulf of Aden equals more than 1.1 million square miles, roughly four times the size of Texas or the size of the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined. In a region this large merchant mariners must often serve as the first line defenders against pirates, because naval forces will likely not be close enough to respond.
#1
From another perspective, it took 5 hours for seven of the highest-quality assets from the world's premier military powers to subdue ... a skiff with seven dirtbags aboard.
#3
That's all well and good, but thanks to the catch-and-release nature of this, these guys will get three-hots-and-a-cot before they're dumped back in Somalia, free to play high seas pirate again. All they've lost is some AK's and a boat.
Posted by: Dar ||
03/31/2009 13:02 Comments ||
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#6
Goddamn western nations are fucking pussies and our timidity will be the death of us.
No, its when Western nations allowed ivory tower lawyers to supersede practical human behavior known as history to write laws. An early warning of Hope and Change meeting reality.
Mauritanian junta leader Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz confirmed his candidature in the June 6th presidential election, Journal Tahalil reported on Sunday (March 29th). In an interview with satellite TV channel Al Arabiya on Saturday, Abdelaziz said he would resign from the military in mid-April. The Mauritanian constitution bars active-duty military personnel from seeking elected office. The president of the Senate will be responsible for assuring that the government functions smoothly during the transition, Mauritanian daily L'Authentique reported.
In related news, Mauritania's anti-coup National Frond for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD) said Sunday it would accept efforts by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to mediate the political crisis only if the junta were to ease travel restrictions on deposed president Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, free former Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghef and abandon its proposed election calendar.
Libyan leader and African Union chairman Moamer Kadhafi, whose recent mediation attempt was unsuccessful, said Sunday in Addis Ababa that military rule in Mauritania is a "reality we have to accept". He also questioned the decision last week by the AU Peace and Security Council to maintain sanctions on Mauritania, saying that the Council does not have independent authority to impose such measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2009 00:00 ||
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Hard to tell whether she is a gangsters moll or a bailed out banker.
The ill-gotten gains
— Among the items found at the Sheas' home was a collection of designer handbags worth £12,000
— The couple once took a chauffeur-driven Mercedes from their home to Claridge's in London where they spent £6,000 on a weekend stay and a meal in Gordon Ramsay's in-house restaurant
— They ran up a £1,095 bill at the Oxo Tower restaurant in Central London, including £850 on a bottle of Cristal champagne
— On their driveway stood a £110,000 Aston Martin, a £46,500 4x4 BMW X5 and a Range Rover
— They took guests to £5,000 hospitality packages at the Open golf at Hoylake, rock concerts at the MEN Arena and other events
— Shea was arrested before they took a £33,000 cruise to the World Cup cricket in Barbados and a grand prix trip to Monaco for which a £6,000 cash deposit was paid
— They spent £100,000 on his and hers watches that were encrusted with diamonds. Police officers also found boxes packed full of Rolex, Patek Philippe and Chopard watches
#1
"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." - Timothy 6:10
#2
Which begs the question; will high profile illegal drug barons (e.g. CEO's of gangs) be subject to the executive compensation limitations that get legislated by the Obama/Pelosi/Reid cabal?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/31/2009 10:08 Comments ||
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#3
Only if they take the bailout money, Jack.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/31/2009 12:52 Comments ||
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Former Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze joined opposition calls on Monday for President Mikheil Saakashvili, who ousted Shevardnadze in the country''s 2003 Rose Revolution, to resign.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2009 00:00 ||
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With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.
After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.
Killing an aircraft carrier. Boy howdy nobody's ever thought of that before ...
First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.
The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces. The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.
Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.
Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.
While the ASBM has been a topic of discussion within national defense circles for quite some time, the fact that information is now coming from Chinese sources indicates that the weapon system is operational. The Chinese rarely mention weapons projects unless they are well beyond the test stages. If operational as is believed, the system marks the first time a ballistic missile has been successfully developed to attack vessels at sea. Ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack.
Along with the Chinese naval build-up, U.S. Navy officials appear to view the development of the anti-ship ballistic missile as a tangible threat.
After spending the last decade placing an emphasis on building a fleet that could operate in shallow waters near coastlines, the U.S. Navy seems to have quickly changed its strategy over the past several months to focus on improving the capabilities of its deep sea fleet and developing anti-ballistic defenses.
As analyst Raymond Pritchett notes in a post on the U.S. Naval Institute blog: "The Navy's reaction is telling, because it essentially equals a radical change in direction based on information that has created a panic inside the bubble. For a major military service to panic due to a new weapon system, clearly a mission kill weapon system, either suggests the threat is legitimate or the leadership of the Navy is legitimately unqualified. There really aren't many gray spaces in evaluating the reaction by the Navy...the data tends to support the legitimacy of the threat."
In recent years, China has been expanding its navy to presumably better exert itself in disputed maritime regions. A recent show of strength in early March led to a confrontation with an unarmed U.S. ship in international waters.
#1
Thank you Bill Clinton. You gave China the missile technology and machining to accomplish this feat in the 90's.
Posted by: Bob Angoluse5058 ||
03/31/2009 17:24 Comments ||
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#2
Little thing called math and physics makes it a difficult proposition at best and idiocy at worst. Heres why...lets say you have a battlgroup..your target is the carrier in the middle of said battlegroup. Said carrier is able to move say at least 35mph. Now lets say your missiles are 1000km away and takes at least 15-30 minutes to reach the target if it stayed still. IRBMs don't accelerate as fast as ICBMs nor have as high a velocity so we'll say 30 minutes is the upper end of that figure. In that time the carrier can potentially move somewhere around 10 miles in ANY direction...thats roughly 340 square miles of ocean the damn missile warhead has to scan with whatever radar or guidance set it has then make its course corrections all while staying within a 5-10 minute bracket in order to have enough velocity and fuel to make it to a moving target. THIS IS ROCKET SCIENCE ITS NOT EASY.
#4
Ala WORLD MILITARY FORUM > the Chinese are also interested in dev = "researching" VARIOUS HI-TECHY, REMOTE CONTROLLED, FIRE-AND-FORGET ANTI-CARRIER, etc. TORPEDO- + MISSLE PLATFORMS e.g. CONVERTED OIL PLATFORMS, DIRIGIBLES, RC ARTY BATTERIES EMPLACED ON CHINA SEA ISLETS, etc.
The PRC fears that US = US-ALLIED MARITIME AREA/SEA DENIAL as per DISPUTED CHINA SEA ISLAND GROUPS will serously hamper their desired ability to project OTH MilPol force-power e.g. TAIWAN, MALACCAS, INDIAN OCEAN. Its a major rationale beghind China's new regional rapprochement vee JAPAN.
WMF + OTHER CHIN FORUM POSTERS are mainly NOT HAPPY about POTUS BAM-MAN's recent proposition of the US + CHINA SHARING THE NEW GWADAR PORT, which Chin developed [read - PAID $$$].
#5
ION also from WMF > CHINA TO PROCEED WITH CONSTRUCTION OF THREE NEW MAJOR AIRPORTS [PLAAF AirBases] IN HIGH TIBETAN MOUNTAIN RANGES DESPITE LOCAL ENGINEERING AND OTHER NATURAL/ENVIRON DIFFICULTIES.
"INDIAN ARMY 'COLLAPSE'"... ARTICLE > Read, INDIA CAN'T = WON'T STOP CHIN AIRPORT/MILBASE CONSTRUX DESPITE RECOGNIZING THE LT STRATEGIC MIL THREAT TO INDIA + LOC.
#6
Any reentry vehicle coming in at multi-mach won't be able to maneuver well or lock sensors. But off board sensors and comms (sats, aircraft) can locate a carrier and continuously update position and heading and a missile can be designed to compensate in early reentry flight, well before onboard sensors go active. It's a worrisome problem, esp if the Chinese are will to saturate SM-3 and SM-3 defenses. Then how good is US ECM?
Posted by: ed ||
03/31/2009 18:50 Comments ||
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#7
It takes a considerable force to accelerate from standing still to "Mach 10" (doubt it flies that fast, especially at low altitude. Air resistance would melt it, even made of pure titanium). It also takes time. You also don't fly such a missile at low altitude - there's just too much air, too much turbulence, and too much of a chance of hitting something. If you hit an albatross at 2200mph, it's going to destroy both the albatross and whatever hit it (KE=MV - kinetic energy equals the mass times the velocity. A 1000kg missile travelling at ~3000km/h results in a HUGE explosion). The necessity for constant external control will result in its detection, and possibly even spoofing. There ARE anti-missile defenses available to a carrier battle group that can significantly reduce the threat. China's running another bluff that isn't going to work.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/31/2009 18:58 Comments ||
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#8
If we had a CiC and a Naval Command with cojones, as well as a stated defense policy, we would just say: lose a carrier and you lose 3 Gorges Dam. Of course, the Chicoms probably have nukes in containers at the ports they operate at each end of the Panama Canal.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/31/2009 19:02 Comments ||
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#9
Sorry Old Patriot but...I might be a chemist and not a physicist however....mass times velocity is momentum. Kinetic energy is one half mass times velocity squared.
Good analysis. Now, if said carrier task force is using software that's been outsourced to a hostile country and hardware manufactured in the same country ... But what's the chances of that?
#13
Phalanx guns are kinda-sorta being phased out by guided missiles atm, because they don't have much time to deal with supersonic missiles on final approach.
#14
Something unmentioned in the article, and probably unmentionable - what would have to happen to get to the point that the USN has to counter this?
It's either a surprise attack (probably not to wise of the PLA) or actions escalated to this point. If the latter, I suspect carriers will not be anywhere in range to be a target - that's what the unmanned navy will be used for.
Finally, this all has a whiff of being an Iranian press release, what with the super capabilities, indefensibility, and breathtaking threat!
China denies claims of involvement in an internet hacker network that infiltrated government computers worldwide, calling it western propaganda.
China Daily on Monday quoted a Beijing strategic analyst, Song Xiaojun, as saying that "some in the West are trying every opportunity to manufacture fears over China's threat."
Chinese officials say a report by Canadian researchers at the Information Warfare Monitor accusing China of involvement in the cyber-attacks is "just some video footage pieced together from different sources to tarnish China's image."
Based on the report, the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile and government-related computer systems based in Asia especially in Taiwan, Vietnam and India, were particular targets of the espionage.
However, authorities in Beijing have rejected the report, adding that a 'global problem' requires a 'global cooperation'. Hmmm... That's what the Paks keep saying about terrorism...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2009 00:00 ||
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NEW YORK -- The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday, making it the fifth newspaper publisher to seek protection from creditors in recent months.
The step, brought on by a precipitous decline in advertising revenue, means both of Chicago's major daily newspapers are operating under bankruptcy protection. Tribune Co., the parent company of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 in December.
The Sun-Times Media Group, which filed in a Delaware court, said it will continue to operate its print and online properties. The company listed $479 million in assets and $801 million in debt. The largest unsecured creditors are newsprint vendors. Three are owed more than $1 million each.
Both the Sun Times and the Trib are victims of rapacious financiers who bought the companies with tons of debt that they now can't repay.
"We firmly believe that filing for Chapter 11 protection and exploring the potential sale of assets or new investment in the company offers us the best opportunity to protect our respected media properties for the long-term," Jeremy Halbreich, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement.
The Sun-Times, the company's flagship newspaper, had a paid weekday circulation of about 313,000 as of September, ranking it 17th in the U.S.
The dire financial condition of Chicago's newspapers mirrors the situation in Philadelphia, where the publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News filed for bankruptcy protection in February.
Other cities with two daily newspapers have seen the industry's crisis whittle away competition this year. The Rocky Mountain News closed, leaving The Denver Post, while the Seattle Post-Intelligencer went online only, leaving The Seattle Times without a mainstream daily print rival.
#1
Odd thing, their suburban papers are profitable because they have reporters who honestly cover stories.
The 'Flagship' the Sun-Times, as been the 'house organ' for the Daley Democrats for years and Obama recently.
Their 'columnists' are left winger nut jobs, the editorial board can never find a Democrat or 'progressive' issue they do not like,
75% of their 'news' coverage consists of AP stories and the Obits page is so small it is obvious that even the dead do not want to be involved with that paper.
Of course they are blaming Conrad Black for their tax evasion, alienating their customers, chasing away their advertisers, etc.
#2
It was an excellent newspaper, with first-class investigative reporters, until Rupert "The Alien" Murdoch bought it and gutted it. When Murdoch bought the paper, Ann Landers, Mike Royko, and almost all the other columnists jumped ship to the Tribune. The reading level of the articles in the Sun Times dropped to 5th Grade or lower.
I don't know what happened to Pam Zekman and Zay N. Smith, whose investigations included exposing sloppy patient care in abortion clinics (has anybody dared to touch that topic since 1980?) and the famous "Mirage" Bar sting operation. The Mirage was a Near-North bar opened undercover by the Sun Times. The staff photographed crooked city inspectors demanding bribes, and documented months and months of graft, protection rackets and other Machine activities.
#3
Good memories, Mom, good memories. The Mirage Bar, had almost forgotten that one. And Royko was one of the very best columnists of all time.
When newspapers report news they tend to do well. Beats me how such smart people as journalists forgot that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/31/2009 19:03 Comments ||
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#4
perhaps because post-woodward/bernstein, tey started to recruit community organizers activists who wanted to "make a change"? If they'd stuck to their job, they might still have an industry. Instead, they recruited every Social Studies wanna-be that couldn't do math
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/31/2009 19:16 Comments ||
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#5
Fuzzily recall back to school daze. Journo majors were right up there in the smarts department with education majors, but a whole lot more obnoxious.
Posted by: ed ||
03/31/2009 19:17 Comments ||
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Just when the news had all those happy stories about sales picking up last month....
Mercy James thought she had lost her rental property here to foreclosure. A date for a sheriff's sale had been set, and notices about the foreclosure process were piling up in her mailbox. Ms. James had the tenants move out, and soon her white house at the corner of Thomas and Maple Streets fell into the hands of looters and vandals, and then, into disrepair. Dejected and broke, Ms. James said she salvaged but a lesson from her loss.
So imagine her surprise when the City of South Bend contacted her recently, demanding that she resume maintenance on the property. The sheriff's sale had been canceled at the last minute, leaving the property title -- and a world of trouble -- in her name.
"I thought, 'What kind of game is this?' " Ms. James, 41, said while picking at trash at the house, now so worthless the city plans to demolish it -- another bill for which she will be liable.
City officials and housing advocates here and in cities as varied as Buffalo, Kansas City, Mo., and Jacksonville, Fla., say they are seeing an unsettling development: Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, most often because the cost of the ordeal -- from legal fees to maintenance -- exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate.
The so-called bank walkaways rarely mean relief for the property owners, caught unaware months after the fact, and often mean additional financial burdens and bureaucratic headaches. Technically, they still owe on the mortgage, but as a practicality, rarely would a mortgage holder receive any more payments on the loan. The way mortgages are bundled and resold, it can be enormously time-consuming just trying to determine what company holds the loan on a property thought to be in foreclosure.
In Ms. James's case, the company that was most recently servicing her loan is now defunct. Its parent company filed for bankruptcy and dissolved. And the original bank that sold her the loan said it could not find a record of it.
"It is what some of us think is the next wave of the crisis," said Kermit Lind, a clinical professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and an expert on foreclosure law.
The problem seems most acute at the bottom of the market -- houses that were inexpensive to begin with -- and with investment properties, where investors and banks want speedy closure by writing off bad loans as losses. Banks and investors typically lose 40 percent to 50 percent of their investment on every foreclosure.
Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry newsletter, said some properties had become such liabilities for investors that it was not even worth holding on to them to strip valuable fixtures, like kitchen appliances, toilets and hardware. "The whole purpose of foreclosure is to take title of the property, sell it and recoup what money you can," Mr. Cecala said. "It's just a sign of the times that things are so bad no one wants to take possession of the property."
In Ms. James's case, it has been impossible to determine who canceled the sheriff's sale, since her last mortgage holder went out of business. Even the city clerk's records did not provide an answer.
"Nobody has any idea who owns what or who's responsible," said Judy Fox, Ms. James's lawyer at the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic. "It's a very common story."
Mayor Stephen J. Luecke of South Bend added: "It's just a crime the way it puts people in limbo. They first off have gone through the grief of losing their house, then they move out and find out that they still own it and have responsibility for it."
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Board, which backstops defined benefit plans (yes, Virginia, they still exist) faced a rather sizable gap between its expected returns on its $64 billion in holdings and its expected liabilities.
So in a stroke of sheer genius, it increased its allocation to risky assets considerably at precisely the time those assets started tanking. It even managed to cut its allocation to Treasuries way back, reducing its participation in the big Treasury rally of last year.
Now anyone who was finance literate would look at the PGB's new asset allocation and recognize it as conventional wisdom as dispensed by pension fund consultants. And if you had read Benoit Mandelbrot or Nassim Nicolas Taleb, you'd also know that those pension fund consultants base their prescriptions on theories that simply do not pan out empirically, and worse, greatly understate risk. Wasn't sure if it should be filed under Lurid Crime Tales or Economy. Balance at the link.
#1
He's right about the fact that spending our way out of this is not the answer.
However, creating a global finance czar is exactly the wrong thing to do. Beyond the general dangers of autocracy, it was concentration of decision making in the hands of the few that made this crisis far worse than it would have been with lots of smaller entities.
And what this has to do with 'anglo-saxons' per se exists only in the minds of the French.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/31/2009 6:14 Comments ||
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#2
Sarkozy blames Anglo-Saxons for mud at Agincourt.
#7
Anglo-Saxons(people with blue eyes) are the new Joooos?
Posted by: Boss Clease6994 ||
03/31/2009 8:30 Comments ||
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#8
Maybe the menu sucks?
I blame Washington politics and meddling, sub-prime loans, derivatives and credit default swaps, no credit requirements for loans, etc. Ah hell, through ACORN in the mix too.
#10
Look, we can't even agree between the academics, business writers, congress, finance pros and others as to what really happened. I am reading Janet Tavakoli's, "Dear Mr. Buffet" and she is herself all over the map and she is one of the top experts on structured finance especially those toxic CDO's backed by Credit Default Swaps. In fact, if you believe this article then the Orientals are more at fault than Anglo's.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/31/2009 10:40 Comments ||
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#11
Part of me wonders...
When the shit hits the fan, the economy crumbles and wars break out... are the Europeans going to go back to killing each other?
#1
Russia has become the first major country to call for a partial restoration of the Gold Standard to uphold discipline in the world financial system.
America was on the gold standard up till the 1930s but still had Panics, recessions, and The Depression. The element in most is uncontrolled speculation. That requires not only laws and regulations on the books, but the will to enforce them. Gold is no substitute for will.
Ever heard of a guy who said: OMG I bought gold and now I've lost everything?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/31/2009 11:11 Comments ||
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#7
Russia may have lots of gold but we don't. Therefore this is another move by an adversary (not unlike the Chinese central banks) to weaken the dollar but it will not pass. Dollar is strengthening every day even with the Obamanation of our current economic situation.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/31/2009 11:52 Comments ||
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#9
The US has by far the largest gold reserves (remember Ft Knox) at over 8000 tonnes. More than twice the next largest, Germany's. Russia is listed #11 at 596 tonnes. In addition, the US has in possession for safe keeping a lot of other nation's gold reserves.
Posted by: ed ||
03/31/2009 13:19 Comments ||
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#10
"You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns! You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"
The "Boy Orator of the Platte" William Jennings Bryan, 1896.
#11
There are an estimated 400,000 ounces of gold remaining in the mines of Cripple Creek, Idaho Springs, Empire, and Blackhawk. Unless the price stabilizes at about $1200 an ounce, it's too expensive to mine it. The same is true of silver and gold in western Colorado, and gold dust in some dozens of local rivers and streams. Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington have reserves.
Russia doesn't have any idea how much gold it has, because much of the metal exists in areas either near or above the Arctic Circle, and is virtually impossible to extract. There isn't enough gold, however, to back every single unit of every currency in the world - a necessity for the entire world to go onto a gold standard.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/31/2009 19:18 Comments ||
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#1
"I no longer control the Soros Fund Management's operations, I retired last year and now only oversee the transactions to do with my private account," he said in the statement, published by Hungarian news agency MTI.
Israel's prime minister-designate has named his 30-member cabinet, appointing Likud parliamentarians as minister, some without portfolios.
Benjamin Netanyahu began informing his Likud party's Knesset (Parliament) members of their designated positions in Israel's 32nd government on Monday afternoon.
Likud MKs Michael Eitan, Yossi Peled and Moshe Kahlon were the first to receive their ministerial posts. Eitan and Peled were both told they would be ministers without portfolios, while Kahlon received the entire Communications Ministry, and not just part of it as was initially speculated.
Instead, Peled, who formerly served as OC Northern Command, was told that he would be among the few ministers to earn a seat on the security cabinet. Eitan was tasked with improving services for citizens, computerization and Internet.
MK Yuli Edelstein, who had been expected to share the Communications Ministry with Kahlon, denied that he had been promised the post. He told reporters that he would instead be given a "practical" position which is yet to be determined.
Netanyahu has created new positions which previously did not exist, accordingly Israel's parliament has requested a larger table for cabinet meetings. One of such positions was offered to MK Gila Gamliel, who was appointed as deputy minister for women and youth affairs.
The Premier-designate is expected to take the finance portfolio for himself and to appoint Yuval Steinitz as his deputy. Sources close to Netanyahu said he would not appoint an acting prime minister in case of emergency.
The two position filled by Netanyahu, were precisely those sought by Silvan Shalom, but it is believed that he would be appointed as vice premier and minister for regional development, or minister for economic peace and deputy prime minister.
Other Likud officials to join the coalition include Ya'akov Ne'eman (Justice Ministry) Gideon Sa'ar (Education), Yisrael Katz (Transportation), Moshe Ya'alon (Strategic Affairs), Gilad Erdan (Sports and Culture) and Yuli Edelstien (likely to take Media and Telecommunications).
Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigador Lieberman is named as foreign minister, while four other party members will fill positions, including the Public Security Ministry (Yitzhak Aharonovitch), the Infrastructure Ministry (Uzi Landau), Tourism (Stav Miznikov) and Absorption and Immigration (Sofa Landover).
Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak, who will retain his position as defense minister gave Avishay Braverman Labor's fifth ministerial post -- minister without portfolio with responsibility for minorities. Labor minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer will take on the Trade, Labor and Industry portfolio, Shalom Simhon will serve as Agriculture Minister, and Labor No. 2 Isaac Herzog will head the Welfare Ministry.
Netanyahu officially informed acting-Knesset Speaker Michael Eitan on Monday that he has succeeded in assembling the cabinet and would be prepared to swear in the new ministers on Tuesday afternoon.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Bibi names cabinet; ready to swear in.
There, fixed it for you. The comment as it reads above is much more in tune with trying to build a "concensus" in the Israeli parliament.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/31/2009 23:08 Comments ||
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The Khmer Rouge regime''s prison chief Monday finally stood trial for Cambodia''s "Killing Fields" atrocities, accused of overseeing the torture and execution of 15,000 people three decades ago. Former teacher Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - appeared before a UN-backed war crimes court set up to deal with senior members of the 1975-1979.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Surprised the usual suspects who support radical redistribution and the 'return to nature' aren't filing briefs on behalf of the accused, because the program of the Khmer Rouge is where their philosophy ultimately leads to.
#2
The freaking media back in the sixties so glamorized the Viet Cong and the Khmer Rouge that they could not report on what was happening in Cambodia.
It was no secret what Pol Pot and his cronies were doing. The freaking NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC had an article in 1973-1974 about the preservation of Ankar Wat that included pictures of an abandoned Phenom Phen with captions about how Pol Pot had run everyone out of town and there were 'rumors' of mass graves.
Once the cat was out of the bag, the usual suspects tried to blame the killing fields on American foreign policy in SE Asia. As I remember it, our State Department predicted the killing fields would occur if we left the region, which was ridiculed (the much maligned domino theory)by the media and all of the darlings of the press in the anti war movement.
If you do your research on the region, it was not too long after the flight from Saigon that Pol Pot started his crazy policies.
If the media had done their job,instead of sitting on the story for fear it would make our foreign policy look good, I personally don't think the Killing Fields would have occurred.
Posted by: James Carville ||
03/31/2009 10:29 Comments ||
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Don't ask us how or why we came across this -- and the British home secretary's husband did not bring it to our attention -- but the latest entry on the blog of the reigning Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, has a sort of eye-catching dateline: "March 27, 2009, Guantanamo Bay."
According to the Web site of the U.S.O., which arranged the visit, the Miss Universe Organization made the decision to "deploy Crystle Stewart, Miss U.S.A. 2008, and Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe 2008, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to visit troops as part of a U.S.O./Armed Forces Entertainment tour."
Ms. Mendoza, who competed as Miss Venezuela, has a blog on the pageant's Web site, and this account of the visit appeared there last Friday, after her deployment:
This week, Guantanamo!!! It was an incredible experience.
We arrived in Gitmo on Friday and stared going around the town, everybody knew Crystle and I were coming so the first thing we did was attend a big lunch and then we visited one of the bars they have in the base. We talked about Gitmo and what is was like living there. The next days we had a wonderful time, this truly was a memorable trip! We hung out with the guys from the East Coast and they showed us the boat inside and out, how they work and what they do, we took a ride around the land and it was a loooot of fun!
We also met the Military dogs, and they did a very nice demonstration of their skills. All the guys from the Army were amazing with us.
We visited the Detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting.
We took a ride with the Marines around the land to see the division of Gitmo and Cuba while they were informed us with a little bit of history.
The water in Guantanamo Bay is soooo beautiful! It was unbelievable, we were able to enjoy it for at least an hour. We went to the glass beach, and realized the name of it comes from the little pieces of broken glass from hundred of years ago. It is pretty to see all the colors shining with the sun. That day we met a beautiful lady named Rebeca who does wonders with the glasses from the beach. She creates jewelry with it and of course I bought a necklace from her that will remind me of Guantanamo Bay :)
I didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful.
That glowing account of Ms. Mendoza's visit to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay is unlikely to please Hugo Chavez, her country's president. Mr. Chavez, who reportedly called Ms. Mendoza to congratulate her when she won the Miss Universe crown last year, recently called on the United States to "return Guantanamo and Guantanamo Bay to the Cubans" after closing the detention facility there.
Mr. Chavez, who is close to the Cuban leadership, may now be rethinking the praise he heaped on Ms. Mendoza on Venezuelan television last year, when she returned to Caracas with the crown:
I seriously doubt it will do much good, tranzi that he appears to be, but I fired one off anyway.
President@nd.edu
Dear Father Jenkins:
Providing a learned, revisionary interpretation of famous church writings is one thing. Providing a platform for the most radical social revisionist and abortion advocate to ever arrive at the White House is yet another. Please re-think your decision regarding the Notre Dame 2009 Commencement Speaker.
Most respectfully,
AUTO RESPONSE:
Thank you for your comments. Due to the volume of e-mails that I receive, I am not able to respond to every message individually, but please know that your e-mail will be reviewed and considered.
#1
This is causing quite a stir among Catholics, some of whom are putting their foot down.
The secularists had a major defeat last week when Gov Sibelius was directed by her bishop to stop taking communion. Importantly this was backed by two other bishops, which makes it semi-official doctrine. This matters because while there are a lot of priests who would give her communion, this will now put them in direct confrontation with their bishop.
It also is a strong signal to other American and Canadian bishops that now is the time to bar other faux-Catholic politicians from receiving communion. This could put a bunch of them on the spot, and makes a great bargaining chip against the administration trying to liberalize abortion.
There are about 150+ nominally Catholic senators and congressmen. They are the largest religious denomination in congress. They have now been put on notice.
#2
As a Roman Catholic myself and a product of a catholic school education I am appalled at Notre Dame's action here. I wonder if it would be different if the signature read "Rev. John I. Jenkins, S.J."?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/31/2009 11:56 Comments ||
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#3
'Moose, that is very good news about Sibelius. It would be good if other bishops would step up and follow suit and refuse communion to people like Pelosi et al. (I don't know if Ted Kennedy even pretends to be Catholic any more since he is divorced and remarried.)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/31/2009 21:27 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Mauritanian junta leader Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz confirmed his candidature in the June 6th presidential election, Journal Tahalil reported on Sunday (March 29th). In an interview with satellite TV channel Al Arabiya on Saturday, Abdelaziz said he would resign from the military in mid-April. The Mauritanian constitution bars active-duty military personnel from seeking elected office. The president of the Senate will be responsible for assuring that the government functions smoothly during the transition, Mauritanian daily L'Authentique reported. 
NEW YORK -- The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday, making it the fifth newspaper publisher to seek protection from creditors in recent months.
Don't ask us how or why we came across this -- and the British home secretary's husband did not bring it to our attention -- but the latest entry on the blog of the reigning Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, has a sort of eye-catching dateline: "March 27, 2009, Guantanamo Bay."
