I was asked the other day by one of my home mortgage clients, why he did not qualify for the new loan that he had applied for. He was having a great deal of trouble understanding why he could not qualify for a mortgage payment that was less that he'd been paying in rent for the last 10 years.
I explained to him that the government had certain loan-to-value ratios and credit-to-debt ratios that he did not meet in order to get a loan that would be insured under one of the Federally guaranteed home loan programs. As he walked away looking quite forlorn, I could not help but feel bad for the gentleman because, in truth, he very probably could have afforded to make the payments.
He had simply fallen into the trap of the "powers that be" when they decided to make residential home lending homogeneous. A semi-arbitrary set of statistics regarding loan-to-debt and value ratios versus loan defaults were instituted to provide a standardization of debt packages so that they could be traded as securities in the financial markets.
I have seen this happen more times than I care to recap here and wish there were some reasonable solution for it. It appears that as the markets have expanded nationally and globally, the hometown Savings and Loan, that knew its customers and made personalized decisions, has fallen by the wayside.
These days, many times, you can get better interest rates, easier qualification, faster service, and lower closing costs with the Online Lenders and Banks for Mortgages and Equity Loans than with local Lenders.
It is likely that only a grassroots campaign soliciting Congress to revamp the system will make any noticeable difference. I think I will go and write my Congressman.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Is this the start of my Mid-life Crisis?
Where do we go when dreams die?
Whether by time, age, contrary twists and turns of life, by natural causes, casual abandonment, or deliberate disregard in favor of more important or pressing realities.
Whether they quietly drift away into the mist or we crush them with an iron fist in a deliberate action that feels and sounds like a train wreck in our heads.
Is there a dream store where we can go to look at a list?
Replacements for the adventurer? The sailor? The race car driver? And so on…. Or, perhaps, just something "age appropriate" for the aging, the "in crisis," the infirm, the fat, the ugly, the poor, or just all those who have come to realize their lifelong dreams of "things to come" have passed them by and to continue to dream these false illusions of "things never to come" is just wasting whatever boring, mediocre, bland, mundane life we have left.
Whether by time, age, contrary twists and turns of life, by natural causes, casual abandonment, or deliberate disregard in favor of more important or pressing realities.
Whether they quietly drift away into the mist or we crush them with an iron fist in a deliberate action that feels and sounds like a train wreck in our heads.
Is there a dream store where we can go to look at a list?
Replacements for the adventurer? The sailor? The race car driver? And so on…. Or, perhaps, just something "age appropriate" for the aging, the "in crisis," the infirm, the fat, the ugly, the poor, or just all those who have come to realize their lifelong dreams of "things to come" have passed them by and to continue to dream these false illusions of "things never to come" is just wasting whatever boring, mediocre, bland, mundane life we have left.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
"Romance in the Rain"
I remember back in the late seventies in Lauderdale there existed a favorite haunt of mine called the " Café Martinique".
It was just a small bar/restaurant attached to a motel on US 1 , however, it had the most charming courtyard populated with exotic birds in cages where you could dine.
As part of the dining area , there was a small portico with a couple of tables and a tin roof that leaked randomly when it rained.
Some of my fondest memories revolve around sitting there all afternoon in the rain, with one of the most extraordinary girls I have ever known, drinking wine, eating bread and cheese and fruit, and feeling like European sophisticates as we talked of much and nothing. We could just barely hear the jazz from the outdoor speakers over the rain on the roof and since we were the only people outside, it seemed a romantic world of our own just for lovers.
Twenty-five years later the world has moved on, we all have changed, and nothing is as it was in what many of us perceive as a golden time.
In specifics we remember very little of the past and perhaps, mostly, that is just as well.
It still rains in Fort Lauderdale, the Café is long gone, and I have become only a reflection of who I once was, however, I still remember the wine, the rain, and that extraordinary girl. She was unforgettable !
And she still is !
It was just a small bar/restaurant attached to a motel on US 1 , however, it had the most charming courtyard populated with exotic birds in cages where you could dine.
As part of the dining area , there was a small portico with a couple of tables and a tin roof that leaked randomly when it rained.
Some of my fondest memories revolve around sitting there all afternoon in the rain, with one of the most extraordinary girls I have ever known, drinking wine, eating bread and cheese and fruit, and feeling like European sophisticates as we talked of much and nothing. We could just barely hear the jazz from the outdoor speakers over the rain on the roof and since we were the only people outside, it seemed a romantic world of our own just for lovers.
Twenty-five years later the world has moved on, we all have changed, and nothing is as it was in what many of us perceive as a golden time.
In specifics we remember very little of the past and perhaps, mostly, that is just as well.
It still rains in Fort Lauderdale, the Café is long gone, and I have become only a reflection of who I once was, however, I still remember the wine, the rain, and that extraordinary girl. She was unforgettable !
And she still is !
Thursday, February 8, 2007
You can't go home again... but I can remember
It’s true that you can never go home again. If for no other reason than time is a component of the universe (you know, that old time and space thing) and the place you remember cannot be revisited because it no longer exists in this time. Only a simulacrum and undoubtedly, a changed one at that.
Sometimes this reflection can be comforting enough to soothe our need but more often than not, it is hollow somehow. More gaudy, smaller, and less poignant with the connection frayed and weathered.
The little country store only covered 100 sq. ft. or so, but seemed much larger to a child. At seven and eight, your perspective is a little skewed. Just down the road from my Grandfather's farm, it sold Coke and Pepsi Cola, Nehi Grape and Orange Soda, and Yoo Hoo chocolate drinks, candy and cigarettes, and odds and ends to all the local farmhands and, of course, all us kids.
In a time and place when aluminum cans, pop tops and even twist off tops were unheard of. Everything came in glass bottles and had a deposit. The shed out back was stacked to the ceiling with cases of empty bottles.
The parking lot was paved with tens of thousands of bottle caps that constantly filled the bottle openers on the side of the two chest type cold drink coolers. It could be painful to walk across barefoot and cuts were common. It’s just that as children on a farm in the summertime, you were always barefoot. Breaking up dirt clogs in the fields with your bare feet was a favorite pastime.
In the halcyon days of youth, innocence abounded and responsibility was a concept yet to be discovered by us.
Sometimes this reflection can be comforting enough to soothe our need but more often than not, it is hollow somehow. More gaudy, smaller, and less poignant with the connection frayed and weathered.
The little country store only covered 100 sq. ft. or so, but seemed much larger to a child. At seven and eight, your perspective is a little skewed. Just down the road from my Grandfather's farm, it sold Coke and Pepsi Cola, Nehi Grape and Orange Soda, and Yoo Hoo chocolate drinks, candy and cigarettes, and odds and ends to all the local farmhands and, of course, all us kids.
In a time and place when aluminum cans, pop tops and even twist off tops were unheard of. Everything came in glass bottles and had a deposit. The shed out back was stacked to the ceiling with cases of empty bottles.
The parking lot was paved with tens of thousands of bottle caps that constantly filled the bottle openers on the side of the two chest type cold drink coolers. It could be painful to walk across barefoot and cuts were common. It’s just that as children on a farm in the summertime, you were always barefoot. Breaking up dirt clogs in the fields with your bare feet was a favorite pastime.
In the halcyon days of youth, innocence abounded and responsibility was a concept yet to be discovered by us.
Monday, February 5, 2007
"Don't Call Me That!"
Names,Labels, monikers, and other mis-descriptions...
First of all, let me start by saying I am generally a liberal and a Democrat.
That being said, I strongly object to being stereotyped by any type of label. I'm (and most folk I know are ) far more complex than that.
I really am a far left wing liberal, middle of the road moderate, and extreme right wing consevative on a wide varity of diverse subjects, and a whole lot of shades all across the spectrum.
Here are examples of just some of my points of view...
I believe everyone has the right to own a gun without being registered ( or targeted ) by any governmental authority and gun control means hitting what you aim at.
I believe most gun accidents happen because many people have no idea of what real damage can be done with a firearm. The media and the PTB always say "we are not going to air that footage because it is too graphic and could be upsetting". Well Hell, all that accomplishes is to keep the public ingnorant of the realities. Show the people what can really happen, let them get upset, and then, perhaps, not so many ignorant people will be so calvalier about buying and brandashing guns.
If you try to elimnate guns, then the criminals will go back to knives, swords, bows, etc. There was crime of all kinds ( murder, robbery, rape, etc. ) long before the invention of gunpowder.
Maybe the public will come to understand how horrific "WAR" truely is.
I don't generally believe in capitol punishment. If, however, you are are going to have a death penalty availible in the court system, then the jury members should have to attend the execution personally, look the "victim" in the eye, and each one throw a switch to kill the convict. If they cannot do so, then there should be no execution. To kill under color of "law" by pronouncement and have someone else do the dirtywork is just "State sanctioned murder". Murder by any other name is still murder. If you feel enough conviction to have someone killed for a crime, then you should have the "chops"to participate in the execution yourself.
I believe that procecutors should be barred from any elected office because that would eliminate the need to unjustly pile up convictions just to have a track record to run on. Then procecutions would be based on real merit and not just trying to build a reputation. Also the elimination of "plea bargining" would make all real criminals have to serve time if convicted and stop the expensive imprisonment of massive numbers of minor criminals in a trade off that leaves the worst free and continuing to victimize and be supported by the public.
I believe that term limits would help make "public service" re-materialize and "government service" disappear. That along with campaign finance reform, would go along way towards finding an honest politician.
I believe that there should be a cap on medical malpractice awards and anything beyound a certain point would turn the matter into a criminal situation with jail consequenses. A national medical licence and registry so incompetants and revokees could not relocate and do more damage.
I believe that by making congress subject to medicare, Social Security, and healthcare options like the rest of us, and discontinueing all their sweetheart retirement and healthcare perk packages, they would then get off their collective butts and make some real progress.
First of all, let me start by saying I am generally a liberal and a Democrat.
That being said, I strongly object to being stereotyped by any type of label. I'm (and most folk I know are ) far more complex than that.
I really am a far left wing liberal, middle of the road moderate, and extreme right wing consevative on a wide varity of diverse subjects, and a whole lot of shades all across the spectrum.
Here are examples of just some of my points of view...
I believe everyone has the right to own a gun without being registered ( or targeted ) by any governmental authority and gun control means hitting what you aim at.
I believe most gun accidents happen because many people have no idea of what real damage can be done with a firearm. The media and the PTB always say "we are not going to air that footage because it is too graphic and could be upsetting". Well Hell, all that accomplishes is to keep the public ingnorant of the realities. Show the people what can really happen, let them get upset, and then, perhaps, not so many ignorant people will be so calvalier about buying and brandashing guns.
If you try to elimnate guns, then the criminals will go back to knives, swords, bows, etc. There was crime of all kinds ( murder, robbery, rape, etc. ) long before the invention of gunpowder.
Maybe the public will come to understand how horrific "WAR" truely is.
I don't generally believe in capitol punishment. If, however, you are are going to have a death penalty availible in the court system, then the jury members should have to attend the execution personally, look the "victim" in the eye, and each one throw a switch to kill the convict. If they cannot do so, then there should be no execution. To kill under color of "law" by pronouncement and have someone else do the dirtywork is just "State sanctioned murder". Murder by any other name is still murder. If you feel enough conviction to have someone killed for a crime, then you should have the "chops"to participate in the execution yourself.
I believe that procecutors should be barred from any elected office because that would eliminate the need to unjustly pile up convictions just to have a track record to run on. Then procecutions would be based on real merit and not just trying to build a reputation. Also the elimination of "plea bargining" would make all real criminals have to serve time if convicted and stop the expensive imprisonment of massive numbers of minor criminals in a trade off that leaves the worst free and continuing to victimize and be supported by the public.
I believe that term limits would help make "public service" re-materialize and "government service" disappear. That along with campaign finance reform, would go along way towards finding an honest politician.
I believe that there should be a cap on medical malpractice awards and anything beyound a certain point would turn the matter into a criminal situation with jail consequenses. A national medical licence and registry so incompetants and revokees could not relocate and do more damage.
I believe that by making congress subject to medicare, Social Security, and healthcare options like the rest of us, and discontinueing all their sweetheart retirement and healthcare perk packages, they would then get off their collective butts and make some real progress.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
TV network insanity!
Does anyone else get how stupid the television networks are?
Every 13 weeks or so they come out with a new spate of shows and invariably cancel any that I liked .
They say it’s because not enough people watch (in their limited focus groups or Neilsen polls ) for them to sell ads profitably.
Hello !! Knock, Knock, is anybody home at the networks?
My family (and everyone I know) has from 2 to 4 VCRs (or digital recorders) and the shows they really want to watch get recorded. I know this doesn’t rate with the PTB (powers that be) but it means that they regularly cancel shows that actually have a better chance at selling me something than some crappy cheap reality show or totally ridiculous biased "in depth" pseudo-news show.
I like News! Real News. I like to make up my own mind. And I like to be entertained.
After work I have a million (well a lot anyway) of things to do before I can call it a day. To this end, I record the shows I like and only watch those I am not particularly concerned with at broadcast time. It doesn’t matter if I have to pick up a Pizza then because if I miss it, it’s not important.
I don’t know what the answer is, perhaps a comparitive survey of popularity as opposed to just what is watched a what time, however, if the networks will pay me what they pay the Idiots they currently have in charge, I will be glad to try to figure it out for them.
I bet a lot of us have more on the ball and more common sense than they appear to…
Every 13 weeks or so they come out with a new spate of shows and invariably cancel any that I liked .
They say it’s because not enough people watch (in their limited focus groups or Neilsen polls ) for them to sell ads profitably.
Hello !! Knock, Knock, is anybody home at the networks?
My family (and everyone I know) has from 2 to 4 VCRs (or digital recorders) and the shows they really want to watch get recorded. I know this doesn’t rate with the PTB (powers that be) but it means that they regularly cancel shows that actually have a better chance at selling me something than some crappy cheap reality show or totally ridiculous biased "in depth" pseudo-news show.
I like News! Real News. I like to make up my own mind. And I like to be entertained.
After work I have a million (well a lot anyway) of things to do before I can call it a day. To this end, I record the shows I like and only watch those I am not particularly concerned with at broadcast time. It doesn’t matter if I have to pick up a Pizza then because if I miss it, it’s not important.
I don’t know what the answer is, perhaps a comparitive survey of popularity as opposed to just what is watched a what time, however, if the networks will pay me what they pay the Idiots they currently have in charge, I will be glad to try to figure it out for them.
I bet a lot of us have more on the ball and more common sense than they appear to…
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