board77

I keep being told here and elsewhere that it was all greedy, stupid, and poor ethnic minority people Not at all. And I'm certainly not claiming that it was "all" due to subprimes, since (as you ought to have noted) I agree with the other causes Lidless has pointed out. There is lots of bl...

Ellie, absolutely I read what Lidless wrote. And F&F's stated policy, which she cites, was a *lie.* Fannie and Freddie paid lip service to it, and ignored it. The shenanigans were all laid bare when Congress looked into the collapse. She also talks about the 1990's, as if the the recklessness di...

Oh, there's no question that the creation of slice-and-dice MBS's and a lax regulatory environment set the table- but it's also the case that Fannie and Freddie's collapse was foreseen at Treasury years ago and nobody took action. The result was fractional-reserve dominoes that fell in a tsunami of,...

What I find interesting is that the Dachau look we see in female supermodels isn't pushed by men at all- it's *women* (and gay men) who largely drive the fashion industry and its expectations. The average American male is far more attracted to the zaftig (if supermammary) curves of an Anna Nicole Sm...

Agreed, Vison. Believe it or not.

The original Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) attempted to stop discrimination in loans made to individuals and businesses from low and moderate-income neighborhoods. There was a caveat though – that the loans were still consistent with safe and sound operation. It did not require institutions to...

No problem.

Edited.

Quote:

but false quotation seems to be your style lately

I suggest you back that up, sir, or retract it.

Of course, over on HuffPo and Kos we're already seeing articles about how these pirates are actually the victims, some sort of 'environmental liberation movement,' or, at worst, naifs forced into a life of crime by their Evil White Man-created poverty. Just imagine how the press would have spun this...

SF, I just love the way you make categorical statements concerning subjects about which you know less than nothing.

I wouldn't have minded being a fly on the bulkhead on Bainbridge ' bridge when Castellano took the initiative under the Standing Orders to act. (Incidentally, between a ship and an inflatable in choppy seas in the dark, three head shots is freakin' amazing . Those SEALs are to marksmanship what LeBr...

Just soliciting thoughts on the Maersk Alabama affair, Captain Phillips' rescue, and the problem of Somali piracy generally. As for me: Pompey and Caesar got it right, as did Jefferson and Madison. The first and nearly only military operation conducted independently by the Government of Virginia was...

Thank you, Liddy. But I have a couple of questions: And the only reason banks were lending on riskier terms was because the investment arm had the shackles taken off by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. 1) Isn't it the case that the 1994 and 1996 revisions to the CRA encouraged (and in s...

There was quite the disinformation campaign for the dangers of smoking. Some of those deniers moved over to the paid global warming deniers front, like Singer, for one. There we have it- the slander strategy. Every one of the hundreds of skeptical scientists has a cousin whose hairdresser's boyfrie...

The Healthcare Commission, the NHS standards watchdog, said that evidence suggested that as many as 400 deaths at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust could have been prevented and may have been the result of poor care. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article5924777.ece#cid=OTC-RS...

solicitr wrote: Right. Because the most egregious poisoners of air, water and land were- oops, the Communist Bloc. What? What? Yes, Pippin. You can look it up. Soviet-style industrialism (and Chinese as well) never let little things like total toxic devastation get in the way of fulfilling the Five...

But let us please discard this insane fiction that "development" has improved the lives of the suffering poor around the world. Some people are "richer" now, and have, guess what, big piles of plastic crap just like we do. An awful lot of people have worse lives, their air, wate...

Ditto. We should drop all trade barriers, starting with ag subsidies.

Well, Sweden's conservative government is only 'conservative' in Swedish terms, as in 'slighly less far to the left.' I don't see it moving to dismantle the Welfare State. It's still amazing to me that *any* US government could be to the left of *any* Swedish government. I like the few Swedes I've k...

Vison, that's not a proposal. I get it that you don't think our horrible American lifestyle would be good for Mindanao or Equatorial Guinea. Fine. (Although I would observe that we benighted first-worlders apparently like your 'plastic crap,' or we wouldn't buy it. If you want to play the Chomsky ca...