Jon in Pasadena

I didn't read too much into it, myself. I just figured McCain's train of thought just probably blew through a couple of junctions before his mouth caught up. I expect he was thinking something along the lines of "Which one of the two candidates you see standing before you do you think voted for it -- that one!" But, of course, it probably didn't come out quite the way he wanted. I look forward to many such entertaining gaffes if he somehow wins this election: "Oh, I'm sorry, General. I meant to say I do NOT want you to initiate saturation bombing of Iran". Whoops!

I'm sure glad everything else is going so smoothly these days that I have time to worry about really important issues like Prop 8.

Non-directional option spreads? Iron Condors?

I have no plans to move, although plans sometimes do change unexpectedly. Where I bought, the median sale price for SFR was down about 12% YOY in August. I bought in November 2007, so I'll have to wait a couple months to see where we're at then. I'm not too worried; the below-median sector (where I am) has very solid support. If my area dropped another 20%, I'd expect that most of LA would have crashed to Detroit-like levels. I suppose it's possible, if we're really entering another "Dust Bowl" era.

Thanks, that was very helpful. In my case, I put about 23% down on my property late last year, and I'm crossing my fingers & toes that that will be enough equity to ride out the current cycle without going underwater.

Hey, I think you should go mainstream with your philosophy. You'll want some kind of snappy slogan though...perhaps something like this: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

GG, could you clarify for me what, if any, differences you perceive in the "impact on the rising mortgage debt" of performing vs. non-performing debt? My understanding (which is almost certainly imperfect) of the mortgage-related factors in the current liquidity crisis (I realized there are other factors as well), is that the CDOs or MBS, or what have you, comprise "good" debt bundled with "bad", and they are so deeply intertwined that no-one wants to touch any of it right now, thus reducing the market, and hence the market value, of those securities to near zero. I see how performing debt gets added into the total, but I don't see how you can blame the complying (paying/performing) mortgagee for the subsequent collateralization and sale of his mortgage? Ah - I read a few of the other threads, so I might have a glimmer of where you're at with this...are you saying that highly leveraged but performing mortgagees are implicitly stressing the system because, in the event of a severe downturn, they may more easily transition to non-performing debtors, thus ratcheting up the crisis yet further? And if so, then where, exactly, is the cut-off between too-leveraged and not: ability to keep paying one's debt obligations for an interval of 6 months of joblessness? a year? 2 yrs? ... infinite? (Apologies in advance if I've misunderstood your argument.)

I pay off all my credit card bills monthly no matter how much it hurts (and sometimes it hurts a lot!). It's kept me out of the trick bag so far. Also - there's something to be said for pulling a bunch of equity out of your home *before* the market crashes and your paper equity vanishes. Provided, that is, that you subsequently invest it in something safe with a decent return, rather than blow it on beemers, or whatever it is that these people are doing.

Um, I dunno. Maybe because they think that a tax-deductible 7% rate sounds better than a non-deductible 22%? Of course that would only apply if you actually intended to make good on your debt.

Is there a local university library to which you could wangle access? I get to use the Caltech library for free! (I suppose technically it's not "free", since I paid some nominal amount years ago to join the Alumni Association. But I consider that to have been amortized to a few bucks a year at this point)

Oh, all righty then. He just used his bikini-clad daughter as the base, and then painted in bush & boobies over her voluptuous body. That's normal. Yeah, I work with a guy who went to Art school. He has lots of good stories.

Not sure which is more disturbing: that he'd want to see his adult daughter nude, or that she'd let him.

They shot him while he was helpless, confined inside a car. Like shooting fish in a barrel. My Glock holds 14 rounds of .40 cal, and I doubt I'd have any misses at point-blank range like that. Only 26 years old. Poor kid.

WTF is "Christian attire" ? Are we now supposed to base our vote on the candidates' fashion sense? If so, I gotta go with a write-in for Brad Pitt in Ocean's 11 -- that dude had style! (To be sure, it was a totally insane, freaky style. Much like....your post.)

Looks like they're not so great as a main course either.

Sympathies to the Bryants. I will hug both my little guys even tighter tonight.

Yeah, that sounds like typical government accounting... (We'll just steal some hours from our grand-kids' days -- no problemo! )

I agree with your observations, and I would add that, IMHO, it looked like once TE spotted his open man, that he was probably going for a longish-intermediate throw, which he is just a tad slower at getting the ball out. (It comes out really quick on the shorter-intermediate routes). Anybody know for sure who/where his intended target was?

Jaws is considered among the best at breaking down formations and offensive strategy, especially what the QB saw on a given play.

The set-up to pay-off ratio of that joke is around... infinity.

Word. The other day I'm driving behind some ritzy BMW with a large X-ian "fish" emblem blazoned on the trunk, and the !@#$tard tosses his lit ciggy out the window. And people wonder why Griffith park seems to burn down every two days this summer. But at least he didn't get his ashtray full of ashes or anything, God forbid.

Do tell...

No doubt about it. For a while when I lived in Nevada County I had to commute 100 miles to work, over Donner Pass. In winter. On a motorcycle. That was nutz. Once my throttle cable froze in the full ON position, and I rocketted over the icy pass right in front of a CHP. He went-on the bull-horn but was literally tongue-tied. What came out was something like "Hey! YOU, arggh,no,you--uh, snow,hey, what the !@#$?" Another time, I was driving somewhere on Hwy49 I think, and a freak storm hit. It was bone dry when I started and 30 minutes later I had to pull off in some tiny hamlet because the snow was over my front fender. I spent a wide-eyed night in some dingy motel right out of "Hostel" and didn't get a wink of sleep, clutching my screwdriver & listening for the buzzing of saws....

LA traffic is notorious, but for day-to-day life it depends almost entirely on where you live relative to where you work. I have an easy 30-40 minute commute which I think isn't so bad. Agree that there are too many people, but again, to what extent that affects you depends almost entirely on where exactly you are in the LA Metro area. I'm sure Chester County is quite nice. I'm glad you are happy living there.Where I live (in the foothills of the mountains north of LA) I too have black skies with stars at night. Also, ski resorts 90 minutes in one direction, beaches 60 minutes in the other direction, about 2,800 restaurants within 5 miles of my house, great schools, great neighbors, a zillion museums and such within easy driving distance. I suppose you might say I live on the fringe...but so what? It takes me less time to go completely across the LA area than you posted it would take you to get to DC....and I seldom need or want to go there anyway. Not too sure why I should feel deprived living far from Amish country...I guess they're really nice people. I actually don't mind shoveling snow (Chef!) I wouldn't really care if we started to get some (have seen hail a few times.) I took my kids sledding last winter and will probably start them on skis next winter. I'm far enough away that they're NEVER a concern. Never much bothered by any of the above. Except for losing a few non-precious non-heirlooms in one EQ. The smog in my city is usually not bad; work is not great but I'm indoors with A/C Can't recall the last time I was affected by a SIGalert. Maybe not (yet) in Chester County, but have you checked Philly lately? Never run into either of them, but I do see porn stars quite often at one of the places I go to for lunch.