Category — Uncategorized

NEW YORK MAGAZINE’s December feature article is a treatise on the Libertarian Tea Party.  Except the author, Christopher Beam, misses the obvious.   The Tea Party is NOT Libertarian.

The Tea Party Caucus with 68+ members in the House exists, and it isn’t the Liberty Caucus with 13 members which, of course, consists of Libertarians.  Ron Paul the outspoken long term spokesman for Libertarians is not a member of the Tea Party Caucus, and refused to join.

The Tea Party consists of American Values Voters, historically populists, who don’t have, don’t want, and don’t believe in ideologies, even those ideologies like Libertarianism that have some vague similarity to their voting values, which include, voting for candidates who are truthful and appear honest; who oppose government corruption and special interest legislation, and among other things, distrust government.

That tens of millions of American Value Voters exist, as they have existed for at least 190 years, not in NY or New England, but in rest of the US seems to be beyond the comprehension of progressive NY journalists who seem to never have taken a course in US history, of if they did, forgot US history.  This is aside from the fact they miss the obvious in the current makeup of the Congress.

INMAN NEWS REPORTS, the 10 year T bill is stuck at 3.55%,  fixed rate mortgages are still at almost 5.5%, and the 30 year T bond at 4.44%.

With the Fed printing money (i.e. ‘quantitative easing’ by the Fed buying treasuries) and doing everything it possibly can to create inflation, people shouldn’t be surprised bond and mortgage interest are more than 6.5% higher than the rate of inflation deflation.

Message to Obama:  heh, the $2 trillion the Treasury has to borrow by selling T bills and bonds to finance the national debt, the $1.8 trillion deficit and Stimulus, only 7% disbursed, ain’t agonna happen without higher interest rates ’cause the foreigners expected to buy ain’t a’ buyin’.

An’ if Bernake keeps a’ buyin’ Ts from the left Treasury pocket ($1 trillion this year) to put in the right Fed pocket ($2 trillion more) it will provoke foreigners ta’ mutiny an’ throw the dollar in the pond, ’cause it won’t be worth nothin’.

Obama: Everyone In The Water Now!!

THE VIEW in San Francisco is often spectacular.  Here is a night pic of the SF and Bay at night from Curbed SF. Wow, this is what I like.

I’VE NEVER HAD A SLITHER PUP.  The Montana “Newton” Pup Dog likes to really stretch out and “slither” along the carpet.

Never have I seen a dog slither.  Now I have a “Slither” dog.  Maybe the slithering will scare intruders?

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WEATHERED WOOD home components are expensive to replace. Weathered wood like barge rafters, siding, rafter tails, and trim are areas without paint, with surface cracks in the wood and ridges in the wood between old tree rings. Weathered south facing barge rafters are a common problem. Recently I had an “opportunity” to restore extensive weathering on a classic Craftsman home for a friend. Here is what it looked like: An example of weathered lap siding. Restoring weathered wood expecially barge rafters and siding is difficult multistage process. Both Home Inspectors and Wood Destroying Organism Inspectors call for weathered wood to be replaced, which is expensive. Especially if it is the entire exterior, as in this case. Southern exposure barge rafters are particularly susceptible to weathering. Here is how to restore weathered wood: 1. Pressure wash or wash and scrub off dirt and old paint; 2. Scrape the entire weathered area with a good paint scraper; 3. Wire brush the weathered wood throughly;  4. Where more than one layer of paint has pealed off, heavy sand the area with 60-100 grit sand paper, with a belt or orbital sander; finish sand with 120 grit finish sandpaper with a finish sander or by hand; 5. Apply one or more coats of filler paint undercoat; 6. Finish sand the filler undercoat to a smooth surface, if not smooth, apply more coats of filler paint; 7. Apply paint to the weathered area. Restored Lap Siding! What a difference! Now that you’re exhausted, you know how to restore weathered home components! Its labor intensive, but far cheaper than thousands spent on new wood! Subscribe to Realestateblocks.com!