Amazing

The latest news is that property prices are falling… well, in these ten cities anyway.

Toledo, Ohio: $115,000 (-18.7%)
Rochester, N.Y.: $149,000 (-17%)
Detroit: $75,000 (-15.4%)
Pittsburgh: $230,000 (-13.7%)
Springfield, Mass: $239,900 (-5.8%)
Tulsa, Okla.: $220,000 (-5%)
Los Angeles: $985,000 (-5%)
Memphis, Tenn.: $173,500 (-4.6%)
Chicago: $399,000 (-3.7%)
Richmond, Va.: $310,000 (-3.4%)

Running a skeptical eye down the list, it surprises me that any properties in these shit-hole cities ever experienced a housing price increase in the first place.  I wouldn’t live in any of them for free.

Not Surprising

Ho, here’s something different:

Hill was working as an employee of a local nuclear power plant when he won a $10 million prize from an Ultimate Millions scratch-off ticket at a convenience store near Wilmington in 2017. According to a WECT report from the time, Hill bought a scratch-off that did not win, then, on a whim, bought a second ticket, which was the winner. After state and federal tax withholdings, he took home a lump sum of just over $4.1 million.

And then in 2021?

A North Carolina man who won $10 million on a lottery ticket was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

And now we play “Guess The Perp’s Race”, for the umpteenth time.

That easy, was it?

Our Leaders

Two different takes on the people who purport to be our nation’s leaders, first a global view from VDH:

As the nation sinks inexplicably into self-created crisis after crisis, debate rages whether Joe Biden is incompetent, mean-spirited, or an ideologue who feels the country’s mess is his success.

A second national discussion revolves around who actually is overseeing the current national catastrophe, given Joe Biden’s frequent bewilderment and cognitive challenges.

But one area of agreement is the sheer craziness of Biden’s cabinet appointments, who have translated his incoherent ideology into catastrophic governance.

The common denominator to these Biden appointees is ideological rigidity, nonchalance, and sheer incompetence.

They seem indifferent to the current border, inflation, energy, and crime disasters. When confronted, they are unable to answer simple questions from Congress, or they mock anyone asking for answers on behalf of the strapped American people.

We don’t know why or how such an unimpressive cadre ended up running the government, only that they are here and the American people are suffering from their presence.

And then a local perspective from Kurt:

The clusterfark in Uvalde is just a symptom of a much bigger pathology. It is a symbol of the failure of every institution in our society. And the solution is never to revamp the institutions and eject the parasites heading them. It’s always – always – to take power from us and give it to the people who screwed up in the first place.

November 2022 can’t come quickly enough (and we need November 2024 to come even more quickly) so we can get rid of these lying, incompetent and corrupt assholes at federal, state and local level.

There are quicker ways, mind you, but I’m not going to go there.

Kindred Soul

I have an ally in my war against loud music in restaurants and other commercial venues.  Saith Nigel Rodgers at the DM :

The introduction of the smoking ban enabled us to shop, eat and drink in a smoke-free environment, so why does uncontrollable, inescapable background music linger in these spaces like cigarette smoke once did?

Unwanted ‘muzac’ (NB. ‘Muzak’ with a ‘k’ is a tradename these days) easily becomes a noise, and noise is the forgotten pollutant. Sometimes you can’t hear yourself think, let alone hear the person you’re with.

You can’t read, you can’t listen to your music on headphones. No, you’re trapped, beholden to a dreadful cacophony.

I wrote about this ghastly nonsense back in 2018, and if anything, I’ve become less tolerant in the intervening years.  Not long ago I ordered my food in a place which played loud music, and then about ten minutes later I got up and left, apologizing to the restaurant manager on my way out, saying that my tinnitus was causing me extreme pain and I would not be able to enjoy the meal because of the noise.  I went back a couple nights later, walked in, and walked straight back out again, motioning to the manager about the loud music.  I never went back.

The hell with them, and all the other places.  Nigel, old buddy, I’m right there with you.