Paradise Gone

Paradise gone: a fond wish to return to return to simpler times when families (actually existed and) and people were happier, when shame existed, and to being able to believe in a secure future.

On and off I have considered buying a place. In 2001 I would look at prices and think I need to buy soon. If I don’t, I am going to be priced out of the market. Then common sense would set in, I am a single male, I make the average family income for my ZIP code but I am single, how can I be priced out of buying at 2.5 times my gross income? Income and price have to remain relational and I make the median family income, so I should be able to buy a median unit. But, I didn’t buy.

Then I would look again, repeating a similar thought process a couple of times over the last decade. Only this time the response would be …. I make the median family income, so I should be able to buy a median unit, but I can’t because prices are too high, I should have bought in 2001.

Now prices are substantially lower, and I make a few dollars more ….. if I had bought in 2001, or at any time after, I would have been a money loser for buying. Glad I didn’t buy.

Now I look, and I say what if …..

I don’t like Chicago. I think it is an infested shithole. And even after 12 years, it amazes me what people put up with here. Most likely, I am out of here if I get let go as the field I am in has been decimated by consolidation, abusive regulations, and by poor management of the institution providing the venue. Opportunity just doesn’t exist anymore (and I am lucky to still be employed).

So now, when I can afford to buy, I don’t because I don’t know if I will even be here in a year. So I look at a market of 30 year mortgage priced residences without knowing whether I will be around long enough so that a purchases won’t automatically be a losing transaction. ….. paradise gone.

Krugman’s Austerity Alarms Miss Depression Lesson

So it’s official. The New York Times, or at least columnist Paul Krugman, has declared us to be in a worldwide depression. And just in time for Christmas.

Democracy is at stake, Krugman alleged in his Dec. 11 column, and Europe, economically and socially, will tip into fascism if it doesn’t cease pursuing “ever-harsher austerity, with no offsetting effort to foster growth.”

Those are big assumptions and scary forecasts. But Krugman is comfortable making them, he says, because he has evidence. His evidence that European democracy is teetering in favor of repression is the case of Hungary, which is a member of the European Union but still has its own currency, the forint. There, the governing Fidesz party is pursuing policies that suppress free expression, judicial independence and the news media.

Hungary is the only example?

Emma West.
“Kill The White Slag” Muslims freed because “they weren’t used to drinking”.
US media’s refusal to print the race of suspects.
Obamacare.
Elena Kagan.
Rupert Murdoch.
Distruction of communities via Section 8.
TSA.
Obese children removed from their homes.
Cell phones that track movement.

Our rights and wages are being stolen from us, and in many cases, being given to those who oppose us. The TSA was an experiment. In one giant swath, all rights were taken away from all air passengers with little opposition. And it was a giant success. The next step will be the removal of the right to privacy in one’s home.

Emma West, loud tram rider, has been granted bail.

The decision was reached at a Croydon Crown Court hearing behind closed doors this morning.

Miss West is charged with a racially-aggravated public order offence after a video showing a woman yelling at passengers on a Croydon tram was posted online on November 27.

The 34-year-old, from New Addington, had initally been denied bail at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on December 6 and faced the prospect of spending Christmas behind bars.

She is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on January 3 for a committal hearing.

A committal hearing is when the magistrate decides that there is enough evidence to send the court to trial. The committal hearing is heard in a magistrates’ court and would usually happen within 2 months of being charged. The idea around committal is that the magistrate has the right to dismiss the case completely before it goes to trial, based on lack of evidence.

It is down to the magistrate at the committal hearing to decide if there is enough sufficient evidence to send a defendant to trial at a higher court. The usual process for this is:

The prosecutor will present the case against the defendant and call witnesses to obtain evidence
The defence lawyer may cross-examine the witnesses
The magistrate may invite submissions
After hearing all the evidence, the magistrate will decide if the evidence is enough to put the defendant on trial
If this is the case, the magistrate will charge the defendant
The defendant will choose whether to plea ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’
If the plea is guilty, the defendant will be sentenced
If the defendant pleads not guilty, then they will be committed for trial in a higher court
If the evidence is not substantial enough at the committal hearing, then the case will be dismissed

from: http://magistrates-court.co.uk/the-court-process/committal-hearing

Please, leave this dear woman only. All she did was put into words what the UK appears to be trying to outlaw — that current UK immigration policy is destroying the UK.

When a government outlaws speech, then it must be shell-casings that talk.

From Forbes:

Germany might be pulled into the Eurozone mess in the worst way: a ratings downgrade.

Standard and Poor’s warned Germany, France, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourgh that they are at risk of losing their AAA rating amid the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis, the Financial Times reports.

The strongest country in the EU. The country that rebuilt Europe. The country that essentially funded the building of Israel. The Germany that one year ago made it’s final war debt payment:

From ABC:

Germany will make its last reparations payment for World War I on Oct. 3, settling its outstanding debt from the 1919 Versailles Treaty and quietly closing the final chapter of the conflict that shaped the 20th century.

Oct. 3, the 20th anniversary of German unification, will also mark the completion of the final chapter of World War I with the end of reparations payments 92 years after the country’s defeat.

The German government will pay the last instalment of interest on foreign bonds it issued in 1924 and 1930 to raise cash to fulfil the enormous reparations demands the victorious Allies made after World War I.

Welcome to the European Union.