Category: Thoughts

Things the Globe could do a good job reporting on, but for some reason doesn’t: Violent crime in minority neighborhoods. The turnpike authority. The state budget. The MBTA. And this weekend, the regional housing market.

Yesterday’s Real Estate section covered the Route 2 corridor in central MA and described it as “a crisis,” but failed to make a case for why it’s different from the housing disaster to the south, east, or north. Their justification:

“Lawrence and Brockton have higher rates of foreclosures. But people here said the real estate market’s collapse in northern Worcester County has been especially devastating because of the area’s relative economic isolation, compared to cities closer to Boston’s transportation networks and urban core.”

In Lawrence, the foreclosure rate is nearly double that of even the most hard-hit areas in the Route 2 West corridor. You want to write about a housing crisis, and you ignore Lawrence? Is that more of a Herald town or something?

They also said that “In 2006, for example, the Fitchburg-Leominster region had the seventh-highest number of subprime mortgages in the nation, 187, that went delinquent just three months after the borrowers closed on their loans, a Mortgage Bankers Association study released last year found.” That’s less an indication of a financial crisis than an indication of financial fraud. I know it’s possible for legitimate 30-year loans to go sour after just a couple months, but when so many of them do, you start looking for falsely inflated assets and corrupt brokers who illegally pushed people into loans they didn’t understand and couldn’t afford. Does the article cover fraud? No, it does not.

Obey Giant, the people (person? RISD graduate, if I’m not mistaken) behind those “Andre The Giant Has A Posse” stickers that were so popular late in the last century, has decided to endorse Obama the only way they know how: With a semi-legal wildcat postering campaign.

Fortunately the poster doesn’t say OBEY OBAMA or OBAMA THE GIANT HAS A POSSE. That’s gotten more than a little tired. What they do have is a pretty damn good poster.

It’s got a little of that punk stencil influence, and a little of the socialist realism influence, but not so much of either that it says anything about that. The strong lines just say strength and the colors say he bleeds red white and blue.

Nat Friedman, my old school friend, boom-time employer, and (perhaps most importantly) one of those geniuses behind a lot of hot Linux software is also endorsing Obama.

You should donate some money. Or write a blog post about considering donating money but deciding to spend the money on booze instead, you know, to support the economy. The booze economy. It’s an important economic sector, you know.

Point being, Obama’s on a roll, but there’s still time to join the winning team without seeming like you’re just jumping on the bandwagon.

I can only hope that his politics of hope and dreams and optimism and progress actually translate into dully sensible economic policies like progressive taxation, lightly-regulated trade, a decent guest-worker program, and so forth. Because I can find the cloud inside every silver lining, I will point out that I don’t know what Obama will be able to do without cooperation from Congress, and that whoever wins the White House is going to have some unenviable wreckage to clean up. Look at the economic stimulus bill going through right now: “The CBO estimated that the most effective stimulus idea would be a temporary boost in food stamps. They concluded that the second most effective stimulus idea would be an increase in the duration of unemployment benefits. Democrats proposed both of those things. But Republicans wouldn’t go along with either. So in order to make the bill bipartisan, the best idea was stripped out. And so was the second best idea.”

My parents don’t normally send me crazy-ass email forwards, and when they do send something, it’s good.

Who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to act in “good faith” and make “compromises” when it comes to corrupt wingnuts gutting the constitution? Oh, right. Diane Feinstein. Shit.

This guy’s got really good chops at the bitter invective thing:

“As the financial markets heave and purge in a heaving, purging outbreak of worldwide bulimia… I think we all know what it feels like to have the batteries drain in our laser wands…”

Wolcott also has good taste in reading: He links to Tiny Revolution with the phrase “thanks a lot, dickhead.”

A friend asked me if I was worried about the economy, and strangely, I’m not any more worried than I have been for the past decade. Sadly, it seems as though the economy has caught up with my previously-unwarranted pessimism.

This song is a lot of fun, and will appeal to anyone who liked Nouvelle Vague’s bossa nova renditions of new wave classics. I also like “F***ing Boyfriend” although the video for that track isn’t done. This video, for “Polite Dance Song,” is directed by Eric Wareheim of “Tim & Eric’s Awesome Show Great Job,” which should give you an idea of the aesthetic at work here: Silly, deliberately amateurish, but also sincere in some twisted, roundabout way.

Innnnteresting sort of crash helmet… and Bacon Salt: For kosher, halal, or vegetarian bacon-lovers. Why the hell not?

I spent a lot of time and energy today trying to think of a way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Glitterati Gossip, while also promoting our giveaway of free MP3s from MusicPass. Do I try to judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin by focusing on the Wesley Snipes tax-evasion trial rather than the Kiefer Sutherland DUI incarceration, or on Foxy Brown over Britney Spears? I mean, it seems to be in poor taste, but then again, the whole blog is in poor taste.

Ultimately I just posted a YouTube clip of Dr. King’s greatest antiwar soundbites, just like everyone else.

Seriously. Wouldn’t you, if you could?

I noticed that Icedoutgear.com doesn’t sell a rhinestone-encrusted Euro pendant to go with their rhinestone-encrusted dollar pendants. I wrote in to find out why.

Yo,
I was wondering if you would consider selling iced-out Euro sign (€) pendants in addition to your dollar-sign ($) pendants. With the fall of value of the dollar, and the fact that the bills are available in denominations of up to €500, criminal enterprises (and people who emulate their style) are increasingly using euros as well as or instead of dollars. If you do sell them, please let me know: I’d love to order one.

Yours,
Aaron Weber

Rest assured, I’ll post any response here.