2011 archive
Koch Party 0
No doubt konservative kool-aid is on the menu.
The meetings are organized by two of the nation’s most powerful conservative political donors, Charles and David Koch of the privately held energy giant Koch Industries. Their brother, William Koch, who on Saturday paid $2 million at a Denver auction for a tintype image of Billy the Kid, also is a conservative political donor, but he does not participate in his brothers’ activities.
Weak Links 0
Crackers don’t have to be smart. They just have to be not quite so dumb.
Staff secretly dropped computer discs and USB thumb drives in the parking lots of government buildings and private contractors. Of those who picked them up, 60 percent plugged the devices into office computers, curious to see what they contained. If the drive or CD case had an official logo, 90 percent were installed.
“There’s no device known to mankind that will prevent people from being idiots,” said Mark Rasch, director of network security and privacy consulting for Falls Church, Virginia-based Computer Sciences Corp.(CSC)
Details and some guidelines for safe HEX at the link.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
How to keep foreclosures moving along:
It is quite simple, really. Tell persons they have to stop paying their mortgage so they can be considered for some type of mortgage relief. Then relieve them of their homes.
Both contacted the bank before even missing a payment to see what steps to take, because they’d taken a hit to their income. Both say Bank of America employees told them they’d have to fall at least three months behind to be considered for a modification (advice that is both inaccurate and frequently given). Reluctantly, both did so.
As a result of missing payments, both soon found themselves facing foreclosure. But at least the modification process had begun, too.
Of course, it went slowly. Like millions of other homeowners, they waited months and months for an answer on their modification applications and sent in the same documents over and over again. Despite sending in those documents, both were told at one point that they’d been denied because they hadn’t sent in the required documents (another extremely common problem).
Finally, last month, both had their homes sold at a foreclosure auction, despite the assurances of Bank of America employees that that wouldn’t happen until they’d received a final answer on their application for a modification.
“The next thing I know, a guy is knocking on my door saying his boss is at the courthouse buying our house,” said Peterson.
What makes foreclosure particularly unnecessary in both cases is that Pinkerton and Peterson had made a point of telling the bank they had the means to bring the loan current even if they didn’t get a modification. And unlike many Californians, both had the option of selling the home to pay off the mortgage because their homes are worth more than they owe on their mortgage.
Now that’s mortgage relief.
Afterthought:
The headline at the link refers to bank “errors.” But aren’t “errors” supposed to be infrequent, even in baseball?
Cantor’s Cant 0
It’s not just a vest.
It’s not just an interest.
It is a combination thereof. See the Richmonder for more.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Welcoming the zombiepocalyse, the polite way:
QOTD 0
William Robertson Smith:
The land of a god corresponds with the land of his worshipers.
(Citation added.)
Turtle Soup 0
Local scientists attempt to combat the invasion of the turtles:
What they expected to happen, overnight, was for a Chinese softshell turtle to follow its piglike nose into the net, proof positive that the invasive species had taken up residence in the Norfolk city reservoir.
He didn’t find one, but he found a bunch of other infiltrators.
Neat pictures at the link.
H/T Susan for calling the article to my attention.
Seen on the Street 1
I cashed in some rewards points for a new camera with a long lens.
Light Bloggery 0
Taking the day off.
Stray Question 2
Given that effective government is the protector of civilization and that taxes are the price of effective government, then what conclusions must we draw about those who would hobble government and would pay no taxes?
A Bit of Hope from and for Southern Baptists 0
Having been raised Southern Baptist, I have found the Southern Baptist Convention’s veer towards wingnuttery over the past three decades to be most distressing. (It is no coincidence that the trend started when Texans took over the leadership of the SBC, altered the structure of governance, undermined basic Baptist tenets, and attempted to enforce autocratic rule.)
I know it also distressed my father, who was descended from generations of Baptists. Indeed, the little Baptist Church in which I was raised stood on land donated by one of my ancestors shortly after the Revolutionary War, when persecution of Baptists by the colonial government came to an end (in the Virginia colony, the Church of England was the established church,; supported by tax dollars; others, including Elijah Baker, who founded my father’s congregation, were persecuted).
Anyhoo, the path of the SBC troubled my father so much so that he sometimes wondered whether the congregation would do better to leave the SBC and join the Yankee Baptist Church American Baptist Association. As a practical matter, the congregation ignored Nashville as much as it could and went its own way.
Now comes a hint of Christian charity from the SBC.
Not much more than a hint, but still a hint. Cynthia Tucker reports in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. A nugget:
The resolution was hotly debated, and it carries no imprimatur of authority for the millions of Southern Baptists across the country, whose churches take pride in their autonomy. They have no hierarchy — no pope or bishop to enforce adherence to church doctrine.
Furthermore, the clause in the resolution that dealt with legalization barely survived, with just 51 percent of the messengers supporting it in an early vote, according to the Baptist Press.
The delegates later added an amendment which noted that the Baptists were in no way endorsing “amnesty,” a hot-button term without any precise meaning.
It is telling that Christian charity squeaked by with a margin of one percentage point.
Dustbiters 0
The number of banks to keep track up continues to get smaller, as Georgia attempts to consolidate its lead in fiscal foolishness: