Housing Market v. eBAY

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I received a notification this morning from my realtor that a home on which I placed an offer is ready to move forward. When we made the offer Monday night, there were no offers on the property. Now, there are enough that the bank has asked all bidders to give their highest and best offer. This smells unethical to me.

In defense of the realtors, they are probably not behind this. Mine is good enough to admit that I may already have the best offer, because the other one might be hugely lowball. He says the bank may have left instructions for the listing agent. While this does not free the listing agent from complicit behavior in what I believe to be pure fraud and deceipt, if he's right, at least the seller's agent isn't the brainchild.

I made my offers based on expectations set by the seller. My offers were all fairly based on the asking price, and all of them were above list (which just makes my skin crawl). I made the offers based on my ability to afford the home and the relative degree to which I value what they contain and would be comfortable living there. In every case I met their asking price. If the bank wants more money, they should list the houses at a higher price. This is not eBAY, and I am not going to put in a higher bid to get the house. It's just a house.

Offer and Counteroffer mean different things to me than to banks apparently. I offer a price less than what they ask and they counter with one with which they are comfortable. Now, instead of a counteroffer, to know where the bank stands, they ask me to stab in the dark and offer more. I should perhaps offer less... For all I know, I would be bidding against myself, which as we all know who use eBAY is against their terms and unethical.

Every REO comes with uncertainties. One reason I am not enamored with this house is that there was a plumbing leak which has not been rectified and which they may be reticent to rectify. Oh, and they had the gall to ask me to check YES/NO that I would pay the difference anyway if the appraisal came in lower. I will NOT buy a home for more than it appraises. Chase learned that already. The banks never lived in the homes, and they have no idea in what condition they really are, and yet they act as if every home were immaculate and demands the highest possible price based on comparables, when they have never actually seen any of the homes in comparison.

If this happens again, I will not dance. I gave you my best offer at the beginning, and if you were serious about selling me a house, you would give me a counteroffer like previous banks have on previous homes. Houses, like all other commodities, are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them.

Update 11:34 AM
A second house has also asked for 'highest and best.' Sigh. If you want to do that, just list the houses on eBAY.

Barack and Breast Cancer

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Tipped off by a friend's Twitter account, I found an article about drugs by Roche LLC of Germany and the FDA. We already know one way in which Obamacare will do the opposite of what it promised, and this with breast cancer victims, some of which I personally know. I actually worked intimately with some individuals in clinical R&D who were working on it, specifically with Her2neu markers among other things.

Obamacare involves cost rationing. In other words, if they deem it too expensive of a treatment, they will not let you get it. If nobody gets it, companies like Roche will not manufacture it. If it does not get manufactured, it will never get cheaper, and you will be denied quality care from drugs that will actually help you.

Most Medicaire costs fall to the state in which you live. In some states, Medicaire costs are as high as 50% of state budgets. With most states in financial trouble, tax increases on the horizon and insurance rate hikes to either cope with corporate or union wages, care will almost surely be rationed. This article says that the FDA is no longer concerned with safety or side effects but demonstrates that the decision to approve the drug revolves around its COST.

Health care is for the sick. The whole need no physician. Yet, if you're sick, you will cost them money, and they don't want that. They want your money. Under Obamacare, you can't get it even if you can personally afford it. You have no choice. They already made it, and you will die.

Anyone who has breast cancer who votes to return the Democrats to power helps sign their own death certificate. Now you know.

Do You OWN it?

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As I stood in the line at the DMV this week, I struck up a conversation with the man in front of me. He saw my car and instead of criticizing me for driving a 15 year old sedan asked me "How long have you owned the car?" I have had the title to my 1995 Saturn since 2003, and it does feel really good to actually own the vehicle.

There are lots of people out there with nicer things than I have. You can see huge boats out on the lake, palatial mansions on the hill, fancy cars in the parking lot at work. On the way to the DMV, a high school girl in a new VW Beetle stared at me as she drove by with a look of condescension. She doesn't own it, but she thinks it makes her better.

Most people own very little. The things they have own them. They make regular and expensive installment payments on RVs, ATVs, and SUVs. Some of them have unsecured debt as well, in the form of clothes, shoes, and brickabrack around their homes. I told a cousin this past week that "Eventually girls realize that the guys who appear to have lots of money already spent it." They own stuff, but it's not really stuff often that's worth owning. They converted their money into things of far less comparable residual worth. All it tells me is that they once had money.

I feel a great sense of freedom owning my car outright. There is nothing like holding the title to something in your hand. It might not look pretty on the outside, but now it drives just like it did in 2003 when I first took possession of it, and I have saved lots of money on regular payments, insurance, and dates on which I did not have to go because I drive this particular car.

Just because someone drives a crappy car doesn't mean they are like Warren Buffett. Not all rich men drive ancient station wagons, but the Rich Men Next Door don't drive Bentleys and Beemers. They drive late model Hondas and Toyotas. A poor-looking guy might be poor. He might also be Sam Walton.

Misleading Ads (Like Usual)

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I have received in the last two weeks about six different mailings opposing Michael Roberson for the NV State Senate. Usually I just use these circulars as a quick way to know who the worst candidates are, since the ones who sling the most mud are the ones who are dirtiest. Sometimes, the charges are valid and severe enough that I change my mind. This time, they made me mad enough to call out this campaign.

According to the mailing, Roberson 'wants to slash essential law enforcement dollars, forcing thousands of police officers to be fired.' Wow, that sounds bad. The truth however is worse.

Roberson wants to cut the bureaucracy, I suspect, which includes police, fire, and education. I include those because other circulars accuse Republican candidates of being opposed to firemen, police officers and teachers. Now, anyone who actually buys that argument needs to think again. Even if some of those people are cut, it would hardly be 'thousands', because if we cut that many, there might not be any police at all left over. No politician wants the state to be left defenseless. That is not in their interest. Yet, the Obama administration regularly mandates reduction in active duty military personnel, which is a recorded fact. Nobody gets upset about reductions in the infantry. This is a red herring argument.

I have previously addressed the situation in letters to the State governor. Half of our state budget goes to wages and benefits for state employees, and I told him that we have too many people on the payroll then. There are police officers, teachers, and firemen with whom we could dispense who are not good value for the money. Someone who is paid $100,000 but doesn't actually earn it could be 'fired' and replaced with someone to whom we pay half who actually does his job. No services are reduced, and yet we save money on wages. I am not in favor of cutting people just for their wage, but if they are not giving the same value, then why not pave the way for people who appreciate the opportunity and give their 100%?

Roberson probably doesn't want to do whatever he has proposed (there are no actual quotes in the mailings) because it will cut these services. These services will probably take few cuts if at all, and the cuts they take will be the people with whom the bureaucrats decide they can most easily dispense. That's how they have explained it to me every year when they put my name on the layoff list. I can be terminated because I'm not vested, but they will dispense with other people first.

In another circular, they quote a policeman (who is a fake because the uniform is not authentic and he is not identified by name) who 'doesn't want to lose his job.' As a public servant, he does what best serves the public. A public servant who is unwilling to sacrifice his job is not actually a servant of the public. Besides, in that ideal world liberals always say they will create, we won't need poicemen. We'll all get along. In my letters to the governor about personnel, I said what I said and confessed that I said it knowing that I stood to lose my job. Naturally, I hope to keep my job, but if that's what's best, then I will go work somewhere else.

Educate your own vote. Anyone who votes based on what they are mailed without asking does the bidding of someone else. Anyone who votes based on what they see on the news does the bidding of someone else. Make your own choices. That is your right, as long as you can keep it.

Reid: Create NET Job Growth

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For the past several months, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has been heavily advertising how important it is and how much he has done to secure alternative energy jobs for Nevada. When the Shaw Solar Power Plant goes online tomorrow, now that all the panels are installed, it will need very few employees to actually operate it. I expect hundreds if not thousands of people to lose their jobs. Yet, Harry will count it as jobs created if those people start working at another power plant under construction.

Most of Reid's efforts to create jobs created TEMPORARY jobs. He toots his horn about how he 'saved City Center', which is now filing bankruptcy, when the jobs he saved are gone now that there is no construction and little visitation by would-be patrons at the stores and restaurants. While he may have been instrumental in the Shaw Solar plant, many of those people, including some people I know well, will soon be unemployed, and THEY KNOW IT. With the new infusion of money for AFSCME, the school district intends to hire 50 new people (note that it says people and not teachers per se), but when the one year of funding runs out, they will probably lay most of those off.

While he supposedly does all this great stuff, Nevada still leads the nation in unemployment. If Harry were so effective, wouldn't we start to climb up from the bottom? Yet, he claims that he is not responsible for our economic malaise. Even if that's true, he has not demonstrated clairevoyance sufficient to reverse its course.

Somehow, he found a few people around the state to thank him for saving their jobs. Meanwhile, the people at the college with whom I work are upset that our wages have been cut through furloughs, all COLA and Merit bonuses are suspended until further notice, our medical coverage has declined while the cost increased, and our retirement contribution rose from 10.5% to 12%. I have received dozens of emails from people complaining about this. Reid is not the solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Until our unemployment number drops, I'm not impressed, and neither should you be.

Update 17 September: My friend who worked for them reported that he was laid off last night along with a few hundred other people, and we hadn't collected or stored a single milliwatt of electricity from the plant. What's more, I have heard that NV isn't allowed to use any solar energy it generates. Hmm...

Harry Holds Soldiers Hostage

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Harry Reid announced yesterday that he will hold up a defense appropriations bill in order to attach the Dream Act Amendment. While our soldiers are in harm's way, he will DENY them bullets, bodyarmor, and billeting in order to buy votes from illegal aliens.

As far as I can tell, Reid gives his current constituents the finger every time he turns around. He is more interested in garnering favor from a putative pool of political support than from those he currently has. It is a GROSS misapplication of his power to deny the troops the funding they need for a war for which he voted unless Republicans pay the ransom and give him what he wants.

Democrats regularly pull this kind of shenanigan. My father has told me of repeated bandaid funding measures to keep the Dept of Defense afloat while Congress dicks around. Meanwhile, men fight and bleed and die, just like they did under General George Washington and perish for want of food and footware. Washington and Adams were almost constantly livid with the War Department of 1776-1787 because it daunted the freemen who volunteered and were rarely compensated only to suffer continued privations.

If this is the kind of person you want, a man who holds our own soldiers hostage to satiate his will, then vote for Reid. Once again, he has shown that whatever utility he had in my youth has gone the way of the Dodo and that he is out of touch and out of line.

Address the Hard Things

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In October 2008, I filed paperwork with the US Patent and Trademark Office for my first book. It was a great moment in many ways. My best friend told me that he admired my courage to make public my thoughts, ideas, and opinions in a way that I could never take back. When I did that, and when it finally goes to print next year, I did something most people will never do. I left my ideas in permanent ink.

Samuel Adams would probably consider that foolish of me. We know less about what he thought and felt because he burned most of his paperwork in order to keep it out of the hands of the British government, which had branded him a traitor and set a death mark on him. By the same token, I think he would have been proud that I take a stand.

Not very many people are willing to address the hard things. It pricks the hearts of the wicked and makes the righteous squirm to talk of moral discrepancies. It upsets almost everyone when you discuss religion and politics if the people with whom you converse happen to disagree. A fair number of people have unfriended me on Facebook because of the ideas I publish, and I have had arguments with siblings, parents, and dear friends because we disagree at times.

Monday, a friend of mine told me an interesting anecdote. His wife thinks that they should not fight because she knows no other couples who do. I have long believed that couples who never fight either never talk or are liars. My friend said that if his wife is correct, then they are the only people who never talk, and they are not really that unique. In order to have a relationship, people have to relate, and you cannot relate if you cannot communicate. Sometimes, when you communicate, you will disagree. That's ok.

Address the hard things. I have held a series of Courageous Conversations since I moved to Vegas that have resulted in terminations of relationships with people for whom I really cared. I did it because "to sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men", and I would consider myself a poor friend to not to what is right for my friends.

I will not claim to always be right or have all the answers, but I will never back down from things that ought to be said and done. I really don't like it sometimes, because I know that if I do, I risk upsetting the waters and alienating myself. However, when I stand before God, I can honestly tell him I did the best I could to do what I should, and he rarely if ever intervenes to stop me.

We remember heroes because they were fighters. They got their hands dirty. They took on tough things against sometimes incredible odds. Chamberlain's 20th Maine led a bayonet charge with 250 men against 4000 rebels under General Hood. Balian kept Saladin from taking Jerusalem for almost a month. Leonidas's 1400 men held off Xerxes army of at least 70,000 for three days at Thermopylae. Gideon led 300 Israelites to victory against Midian. Jonas Parker threw his hat on the ground at Lexington, returned fire, and died pierced by a bayonet for his defiance. We know these names because they did things that were hard.

I will probably continue to address the hard things. I have nothing to lose thereby of which I lament being rid, and if you're not willing to stand with me, at least appreciate me for fighting in a cause for which you're not even willing to suit up.

Kohls: Brilliant Strategy

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I like Kohls for many reasons. They have friendly and attractive employees, quality merchandise, and frequent sales. All of those things combine together into their plan, but the sales are the most brilliant part of their strategy.

As much as I mock the fact that Kohls has a 'lowest prices of the season' sale almost every week, even if it annoys me, I pay attention to it. I find myself constantly and regularly scouring their advertisements for things that I need. Last time I went there, with sales, discounts, etc., I bought a new razor/beard trimmer for $5.88 after tax which was regularly $25. That's an exception to the rule that happened because I only buy things I actually need, but it's part of their overall strategy where they will risk patrons like me in favor of those they actually hope to attract.

People who shop at Kohls generally react the same as shoppers everywhere tend to act. When it's on sale, their relative amount of available capital increases, and so they feel like they have more spending power. In essence, they say, "It's on sale, so I had better buy it while it's cheaper." Most of these kinds of customers end up buying things in advance of their need (which is ok, and smart in many cases), but they also buy things on impulse while they're there because they have coupons, additional discounts, or the convenience of spatial proximity to other things they want or need that may or may not be on sale or on sale for a good price.

I shop at Kohls. I have a list of things I need to buy, including some things I need at some unknown future date that are not yet worn out (like jogging shoes and jeans). When they go on sale and I can capitalize on the bonuses, I will drop by since it's only a little out of my way, and scoop things up for a similarly exquisite song of a price, albeit probably not 20% of original list price like my last purchase. This way, I don't buy things 'just because they're on sale' when they are not a good value or when in those rare cases they raise the price in advance of a sale to drive in business to a product that was priced at the sale price regularly only a few months before (I have no evidence that Kohls follows this latter practice).

A man I once knew gave me this advice: "The kind of woman with whom you mesh well is one who likes the finer things in life but waits until they are on sale." Women used to be responsible for disposition of household goods, which meant they were in charge of the purse. They were supposed to make the money the man earned go as far as possible to meet all the needs and as many of the wants of the people in the household as possible. What I actually seek is someone with the same values and sense of value as I have.

Kohls would do well to have semi less frequent sales. However, I am addicted almost to their advertisements, and so they have managed to keep themselves on the front of my mind. It's a brilliant strategy. Fortunately, I have a brilliant countermeasure of my own...

Cell Phones in Church?

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Ten years ago when I returned from Europe, I looked forward to a return to a land populated by people who didn't feel it necessary to always have their cell phones. Now, the rising generation seems unable to go without them and unable to do anything that is not funneled directly through them. I have previously had a problem with students in class who were there in body only, because they were texting, emailing, or streaming video with people distal to them in space and in time.

You must be present to win they tell you. Well, that's not what I see at church, and maybe that's why people have church but not religion and dogma instead of faith. My sister tells me that even at church in Utah, the pew directly in front of her last Sunday was full of people busily typing at their IPhones in lieu of paying attention to the meeting. Yesterday, I discovered that two youths had played "Resident Evil" in church instead of paying attention. Months ago, my sister and I went to an early morning seminary course where some of the students thought it was ok to not have their scriptures with them. How do you learn about books you can't read? If you're not present at church, you cannot benefit from it. Furthermore, attendance at some of these meetings is required for certain privileges in the Faith. If you are not paying attention, did you attend the meeting?

The students take these things for granted. Many of them do not pay for the subscription service, and others got iPod Touches so they could access free WiFi. People 'find' these things, which means they didn't pay for them, and I am reminded of Thomas Paine who said "That which obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly." Cell phones are now accepted as a 'necessity' rather than a luxury. When I tell people I consider dispensing with mine, they wonder how I can survive and how I will communicate. Well, I guess you'll just have to talk to me in person.

The youth only play games on them because the applications are free. Heaven forbid the devil starts giving away everything he does as freeware or subscription free access. When they can do it just because it's free, how many of our youth will do it for that reason alone? That's how they used to get kids hooked to drugs- the first few times it was free, and then once they addicted you they forced you to pay to get your fix. When I told them I preferred to have the actual book in front of me than look up an excerpt via an application, they said I live 'back in the stone age'. Sure, you can use boolian operators to find search strings, but if you know the book well, you don't need those and can often navigate more quickly than a search engine can arrive at the precise quote you need. Plus, heaven forbid you have to use multiple e-versions of books concurrently...

I try to respect the purpose of the meetings I attend. I leave my cell phone at home during church and turn it off in class so the students can see. When I am there, I am there. People can wait three hours to talk to me. Shoot, it used to take two weeks to exchange letters back and forth in Austria, and I survived. I do not think that cell phones have any place during church. You will not see Jeffrey R Holland checking text messages during a fireside even though he has a blackberry. Maybe some people who are on call need them, but the teenagers and young adults, to be quite frank, are not that important, and it's very likely that anything they have going on can wait a few hours for discussion.

Not that we need a policy forbidding them. Let them govern themselves. I will continue to leave mine at home and turned off.

Dawn Quarter Marathon

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People who know me know that I try to run a 10K three times per week. The light has dimmed enough that light levels necessitate that I wear all white or bright colors and my reflective material on my wrists to make sure that I am visible in the pre-dawn light. Although it's a quiet neighborhood void of through traffic with plenty of yield and stop signs, lots of drivers pass through the neighborhood at high rates of speed and without yielding properly.

Since my accident nearly a month ago, I have been much more circumspect at corners. When I come to a yield sign, I slow much more than the people behind me like, and I pay attention to whether or not I actually stop at those corners that require that. I'm not in as big of a hurry, but then again, nobody should be late to his own funeral.

When I started this exercise program a year ago, my father advised me to learn to go the distance. I have been at it long enough that I run a 10K in about 46-48 minutes on average. It's not a tough course per se, but in our neighborhood, enough people have seen me do this long enough that they no longer expect me of casing the neighborhood and actually say hello if they see me when they go out to put out the trash.

I love to run in the morning. I catch the sunrise frequently, and the air is usually clear. I have been and probably always will be a morning person. It's when I'm most productive. I read my scriptures, exercise, shave, do laundry, and pay bills usually, all before even those coworkers who rise next earliest have even rolled out of bed. Sure, maybe I have to wear warm clothing in the winter or bright colors to avoid being hit by a car, and I have had a few close calls, but it sets up the day in a good way.

Some days, it's hard to get out of bed, but I know that if I don't I will wish I had. Also, before I run 1/8 mile, I usually feel really good, having shaken off the fatigue that persists as long as you lay on the mattress, and invigorated for what may come along the way.

I know dawn isn't for everyone. My dad is very productive at night, and I see a lot more people out exercising after work than I do in the morning, especially under the age of 50. By the time I get home from work, however, I've been up for 12 hours or so already and spent most of my productive energies, so I dont' have much left. Plus, it was only 76F this morning, but by 5PM it will be over 100F. I'd rather exercise when it's relatively decent outside, but that's apparently just me.