Originally Posted By TomSawyer >>Are you saying Saddam should have been removed Tom?<< At this point, I don't know if that was the right decision for us or for the world. Things are still too much in flux in Iraq and the Middle East to know if his removal will bring peace or even more hositility against the US. The emotional part of me is glad the tyrant is gone; the pragmatic side of me knows we played right into Osama bin Laden's hands and right into the goals of the Islamists across the Muslim world. I think the democratic movement we've seen in the Middle East is a perfect microcosm of the potential mess we've created: There are more elections, but in those elections Islamist radicals that hate America have gained power in every country in which those elections were held.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Stories as of late say that when all is said and done this Arab country may end up buying the ports anyway b/c there may be noone else willing to do so. That sounds about right after this political boondoggle that has absorbed the media for no good reason for the past three weeks.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe post 100- Only if you're one of the rocket scientists with an interest only loan on your home in order to maintain a lifestyle you can no longer afford Otherwise, you don't have to live a spin life.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy How do people buy homes in California? My cousin who is in her 30's just got married in SD and the houses they are looking at are all in the 800k and higher range! These are regular houses.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal I live in San Diego. Our home, which is a 3 bedroom 2 bath in a nice neighborhood just appraised at almost 500K. It is ridiculous, but there are definitely houses out here for less than 800K.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe It's all location, location, location as always in real estate Ima and Beau. My sister lives in LaJolla, a suburb of San Diego, and there is virtually nothing less than a million there. At our community, The Ridge Club, there is virtually nothing less than a million. You can do it Beau, like we did, by taking the 250K profit from our previous house that we lived in for 17 years, and parlaying that into a house that is underpriced. The trick is to buy off someone who is desperate and to buy a house that no one else can see the intrinsic value. It can be done that way or else you have to make over 250K a year!
Originally Posted By TomSawyer See, Beau? All those 30 years olds in California have to do is to sell the house they've owned for 17 years and they can afford expensive real estate.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <How do people buy homes in California?> They move to places like Merced.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe Tom--Beau's post no. 121 said "in her 30's" which last time I checked meant up to and including 39? You wouldn't be spinning to have your life more palatable would you? Just having some fun with you as you did with me. I just like the no spin busting my chops not the 30 when it's possibly 39.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe Jim-post 125--I just googled Merced and it looks beautiful! It's a great location and you don't have to pay the high real estate prices.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy <<See, Beau? All those 30 years olds in California have to do is to sell the house they've owned for 17 years and they can afford expensive real estate.>> LOL, that is pretty funny.
Originally Posted By cmpaley LOL! Merced is beautiful...if you like ice cold winters, super hot summers and NOTHING TO DO! ;-)
Originally Posted By Beaumandy The place to be in So Cal is Temecula. I went to a wedding there a few weeks back and it's a great place.. plus they have a very nice Indian casino full of horrible poker players... which is a good thing.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal Merced is a nice place...but it's smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Yes, Temecula is definitely a booming area. A few years back was really the time to get in there because the prices are going up as we speak. The unfortunate thing is that it's at least a solid hour, without traffic, from San Diego. So it wasn't a viable option for us when looking at houses. We're out in East County San Diego right near where I grew up. We're about 15 miles from downtown and about 20 from the beaches at La Jolla. I like our area!
Originally Posted By Dabob2 (Jim in Merced): <<>mrichmondj, I'll politely ask you to stop bringing logic into this discussion. >Good points all.<> (Woody) <LOL! They are not logical arguments. They don't mean anything in economics.> They do to anyone who actually understands economics. <1. A young person will not replace a retiring person. The skill sets do not match. Young people in the work force is usually generated by the creation of new jobs.> That's not what mrichmondj was talking about. He was talking about the rate of unemployment (since Beau had credited Bush with a low rate). And the rate of unemployment doesn't care about skill sets; that stat is only about the percentage of employable people who are unemployed. And if you have demographics in the country in which you have more people retiring in a given year than people coming into the work force - which has been the case lately - that itself will make the unemployment rate fall. That was mrichmondj's point. <2. People buying house can afford it. They have jobs. Who should we thank for that?> The trouble is that many people have been buying houses who CAN'T afford it. Too many have been putting little to no money down and paying "interest only" mortages, hoping the housing boom would last forever and they could "flip the house" and come out okay. But that boom is coming to an end, and a lot of people are going to get stuck. That's not Bush's fault - but neither is "people buying houses everywhere" necessarily a good sign. As with most things, there is a balance; and most economists believe that people have gone off the deep end in buying houses lately - too many of whom can't really afford them. <3. The low savings rate means consumer spending is fueling the economy as usual. What's wrong with that? It will be the same if the Democrats are in office.> Consumer spending is fine in itself. But so is saving. A balance, again, is required. And right now our savings rate is NEGATIVE - i.e. the American people as a whole are spending more money than they are earning. It's hard to see that that's a good thing. Would it be the same under Democrats? Maybe, though that's speculative (and wasn't the case under Clinton). In fact, most people would say that too many people spending more than they make and running up debt is not the sign of a particularly healthy economy - more like an economy that has the veneer of a good one (due to the spending) but one that could come crashing down when the limit is hit... and there's always a limit. <4. Military recruitment. So what if they are making their goals with non-high school graduates. They receive training and discipline. If they lower their recruitment goals consistently, who would eventually suffer? The military isn't as dumb as you think. It would run out of people, but you know that.> Again, a balance needs to be struck. I don't think the military WANTS to have the highest percentage of non-high school graduates in the past 15 years right now, but they've decided they need to. <Where's the LOGIC?> Indeed.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy One thing for sure.... liberals always think the glass is half empty and conservatives see it as half full. The pattern never ends. You see it on here in every thread without fail. What is the last thing a liberal on here said was a good thing besides gay marriage and welfare programs? The biggest thing I am teaching my kids is that being a glass is half empty person is a formula for being a loser and it results in mediocrity and excuses for not achieving things in life. Want to know why Rush is THE man in my opinion?? He is a glass is half full and America is great kind of guy. He, like most conservatives look for opportunity and reasons things can get done and how you can win, vs.. the other side who only see potential failure. How anyone can say we are losing the war in Iraq or that this ecomomy is bad is beyond pathetic. Bad news for America is good news for the libs... how sad is that to live each day with this mindset.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Want to know why Rush is THE man in my opinion?? He is a glass is half full and America is great kind of guy.<< Oh, you're a new listener! Because in the 1990's, that wasn't the case at all. But I'm optimistic, too. I'm optimistic that in spite of the non-stop propaganda from the far right, the majority of Americans can see through that junk and aren't fooled one bit by it.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer >>He, like most conservatives look for opportunity and reasons things can get done and how you can win, vs.. the other side who only see potential failure.<< There you go making stuff up again. Makes it easier to just assign positions to your opponents than it is to actually listen to what they have to say, isn't it?
Originally Posted By Beaumandy OK, give me three positive things democrats have said about America in the last year.
