Child Safety Warning

When is safety bad? When is saving children not worth the cost? What if you could virtually eliminate the number one cause of death and/or injury in the United States for citizens 1-24 years old?

The liberal will leap to the keyboard and say we must do whatever it is-then might smell a rat.
The conservative might think the same thing but will smell a rat.

Ready with your response?

Here is the Census bureau statistical breakdown for 2003. Note transportation and accident statistics for ages 1-24.

excel sheet here

What If I told you that writing a law reducing the speed limit on all roads to 10 miles per hour would virtually eliminate fatal car accidents? This law would reduce those accidents by a margin approaching 98%.

The liberal has to twist their logic to make the argument work. The conservative sees the absurdity of ends without weighing the cost and knows that this proposal is ridiculous. What other laws mandate safety without consideration of the cost?

Clinton Woes Show Smoke

I genuinely think she is setting us up. She being Hillary. The setup being the only choice she has and that is to dump her schmuck cheating husband and have the fortitude to go into the election cycle as a divorce'.

"But Dave" you think: "Aren't you a Christian!?"

Sure I am. I will tell you that the definitive acceptable Christian measure for divorce is infidelity. We all know that Bill ain't monogamous. Why so many women still flock to this guy and vote for him is way beyond my understanding but they do. Very few women would tolerate what has been proven true, let alone the accusations of rape, in their own spouses.

I say again: Hillary will divorce Bill and be our first female President. She will carry a margin of respect and support beyond reproach if she dumps the schmuck. I've said this for years and know beyond a doubt that it would make her unstoppable.

Just Good TV

James Cameron has thrilled us with the Terminator, True Lies and many have enjoyed Titanic. Now he is saying he has found the tomb of Jesus Christ.

Sounds like more entertaining fiction from a man who is gifted in making entertainment. Scholars will disagree with the level of archaeological accuracy as you can find sourced in the link in my title. I was not decieved by the Davinci Code and I'm not moved now. It's the same conspiracy theroy by the same conspirators.

If you want to know more about Jesus, pick up a New Testament for yourself. Just not the Mormon version.

Farrakhan's Prophecy

Is a prophet of God ever wrong?

It is a fair question. I'm asking because Mr. Farrakhan is giving his farewell speech. It would seem that a very stout prophecy he gave some years ago regarding his trip to the big wheel in the sky to visit the mother ship was somewhat erroneous. The one where he declared that his brothers and sisters would be rescued from oppression and taken up in the mother ship?

Any takers on that quote? Anyone still following this nut after that kind of proclamation? If you do please tell me why you choose to ignore some of what he said?

I would tell you that I believe that Jesus was never wrong. I would also tell you that I lump Farrakhan in with Joseph Smith and Muhammad of Islam as being false prophets. If that makes me a bigot in the sense that I am intolerant but still respectful of my on religion then so be it. I'd rather be labeled with a name than wrong.

Mexico's Irritation My Fun

Mexico is outraged that contractors building our fence went 10 meters-about 30 feet- into their soverign soil.

ROFLOL... sorry! Had to put that here. Let me explain:

They have a lovely website created by their government that tells their citizens

EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS on how to

1) violate our border
2) pack to survive the crossing
3) where border watchers are active
4) how to get help once they get here.

So if you will forgive me, I truly could not give the width of a frog's hair of care about how mad they are about us violating their soverginty. They have been publishing instructions on how to violate ours for years and continute to do so!

Cheney's Brass Ones

The problem with the Democrats is that no one calls them out on the omissions of fact. They are quick to point out the Republican administration mistakes and create feel good responses. The part that stinks is that no one has called a spade a spade until now. Every bit of what he is saying is absolutely true to anyone willing to lay politics and wishful thinking aside. Here are the quotes:

CHENEY: I'm not sure what part of it is that Nancy disagreed with. She accused me of questioning her patriotism. I didn't question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment. Al-Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. That's their fundamental underlying strategy. My statement was that if we adopt the Pelosi policy, that we will validate the strategy of Al-Qaeda. I said it, and I meant it. And I'm not backing down.

Vice President Dick Cheney to GMA correspondant Johnathan Karl after an earlier comment that had Speaker Pelosi calling the White House to complain.

Response from Jonathan Karl:“But hasn't our strategy been failing? Isn't that why the president has had to come out with a new strategy?”

Cheney:A failed strategy. Let's see. We didn't fail when we got rid of Saddam. We didn't fail when we held elections. We didn't fail when we got a constitution written. They’re all success stories.

KARL: Didn't we fail when 3,000 American soldiers are all killed --

CHENEY: You wish there was never a casualty, Jonathan. Always a regret when you have casualties. But we are at war.

Rock on Dick. You are the man!!!!!

Nuke Disamament and Knights

Today there was a link in Drudge detailing how a British group was against a Star Wars (junior) system being placed on British soil. Their seemingly baseless reason is because it would make the US confident enough to do a first strike.

Their words, not mine. I seriously hope I don't have to tell anyone how stupid that is.

I went to their website to see where their thoughts are. Rattling around my head was a bit of the history of weapons and the fact that these folks are British. I couldn't help but think of their lack of logic and compare it to knights in shining armor.

Once upon a time, a knight's armor was the apex of military might. There was no single weapon sufficiently strong to overcome it until the longbow and the death knell of both armor and castles: gunpowder.

If you consider that todays intercontinental ballistic nukes are the apex of military might then the historical perspective says there will come a technology that will make those nukes obsolete. That "Star Wars" tech will lead to the elimination of the ballistic missile as a delivery device for a nuclear weapon when it becomes perfected.

My question after reviewing their site is: why aren't you in favor of the Star Wars shield since it will lead to the eventual fall of the ballistic missile? Wouldn't that be the goal of your group?

My Fault or YOUR Fault?

I am a mortgage broker.

I'll wait a moment for the hissing and boos to die down before I continue...

I guess it's just NPR getting under my skin about me being responsible for the actions of an irresponsible adult. Doesn't the old lady taking out that loan that she can't afford have some responsibility for her own decisions?

I can look anyone in the eye and tell them that I was up front and warned them that they were gambling that the equity would last when the situation merited. They begged me for the loan that I knew would not benefit them in the long run.

I remember my parents 14% loan back when Jimmy Carter was president. The days of 4% three years ago had to be a short-lived phenomenon and it truly was.

This is the case in many situations across America. Unfortunately, there are also many situations where the loan originator promised the moon and closed with a cow pie. YOU know who you are, you told loan officers who are honest like me I was a "too high" because I was with your situation. Then you selected someone else and you closed with a totally jacked variable rate and high costs at the closing table. YOU were too lazy or ashamed to call me during your three day right of recision period and ask for my help. YOU are the geniuses I am writing to. Many of you are the same ones who again ran up debts beyond your ability to pay and are struggling.

Am I perfect? By far no. We all make mistakes. However I do have a 20 year fixed rate on my loan and I have always advocated shorter fixed loans to all my clients first.

Yeah, they could save the cash difference but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that they spend the money on eating out so don't get all puffy with me about the advantages of mortgage debt. I live in the real world. I advocate considering your retirement income situation when you are 35 and making sacrifices ahead so you won't be refinancing at 50 to a 40-year term. Sure you can invest the difference but most people won't/don't. Why not pay off that mortgage instead of retiring to wal-mart greeter status?

It's so easy to blame someone else. Let's remind everyone of the federally mandated 3 day right of recision for refinances (against the home ATM comment) and that realtors are complicit in the 2-year-arm high-rate closed sale situations.

Yet somehow the Loan Officer should be paying? Perhaps some should, but I take exception to that label.

Climate M&Ms

History has shown irrational hysteria that has later been proven false many times. Many bloggers may not know that red m&ms were thought to cause cancer so they were

eliminated in 1976

only to be brought back in 1987.

Please read the last line of the article linked in the title, a quote from David Bromwich, professor of professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University:

"It isn't surprising that these models are not doing as well in these remote parts of the world. These are global models and shouldn't be expected to be equally exact for all locations," he said.

The same time you admit that our climate models don't work yet we are hearing there is a crisis? Which is it exactly? Where is our level of understanding?

I'll tell you where it is: we are at the discovery of penicillin stage of our understanding of weather. Do you think that Sir Fleming would have concieved of magnetic imaging technology? That medical miracle is used thousands of times a day in routine medical procedures. That's where our weather and climate experts are today: eighty years away from a ten-fold leap in understanding. Yet there is a panic running rampant from good intentioned but irresponsible flakes saying the earth is ending?

Another extremely problematic phrase:
"We're looking for a small signal that represents the impact of human activity and it is hard to find it at the moment," he said.

When it comes to intelligence on WMD's it is a criminal act to have looked for and assumed they were present. Yet the good professor here seems to admit to a predispostion to intepretation of data for the impact of "human causation" on weather. Why not just accept data as it is collected without trying to force a conclusion? Isn't that the root of the scientific method?

In all fairness I totally appreciate the good intentions of those who want to save us. However, until you prove your fear is accurate I'll keep eating the red m&m's while driving my SUV.

Iran's Act Of War

The Democrats apparently support troops if you listen to them.

If you listen carefully, you will hear a qualifier:

We support the troops.
Mr. Bush you have no authority to go to war with Iran.
We support the troops.
The evidence that Iran has participated in the attacks on US Soldiers is not sufficent reason to go to war.
We support the troops.
We want to sit down to negotiations with Iran and ask them to help with the formation of Iraq.
We support the troops.

The horrific thing about the liberal logic is they don't see the contradiction. They don't see that their statements essentially say "We democrats support the troops unless they are killed through the actions of a foreign government acting directly against them. When that happens we just want to negotiate, ask the aggressor to join us, or better yet just pull out and go home."

Someone try to tell me that Amenijad doesn't think that when he watches our newscasts? Someone please tell me I am wrong. Please tell me the democrats are not this wrapped up in themselves and their hatred of Bush that they deny other perspectives?

Merrill Lynch Wasting Your Cash

I'm checking my investments now to make sure I don't have anything manged by Merrill Lynch. They seem to think it is a worthwile thing to hire Harold Ford Jr.

'nuff said.

Peacock Congress

I'm actually quite satisfied to see Congress spending 2 weeks doing nothing but blustering. When they are blustering and prancing around showing their feathers they aren't creating regulations and laws that take more money or time from me.

What does concern me is their pecking away at Iraq and our soldiers. During the campaign every single Democrat said "We need more troops and Bush will have to use the draft to get them." Last week every single Democrat said "We don't need more troops because Bush is the one asking for them." Now that's a democrat politician! Whatever is said is good for the next 5 minutes or until it doesn't serve me anymore. Heaven forbid you are held to your word on anything.

I'm concerned that we are going to see a pattern of bird brained political sabotoge of troop movement. Murtha said on NPR that he and his allies in Congress are planning on using "not sending troops that aren't ready" as an excuse not to supplement or replace existing troops. My thought is that the law of unintended consequences is going to come back and bite those democrats in the rear end. I'm not sure exactly what the consequence will be, but I am sure it's going to come at the cost of one of our volunteer soldier's blood.

Are Democrats interested in winning in Iraq is the best question I have heard so far. The answer of course for anything involved with the Democrats is "What's in it for me. If it's good for me, then we are for it. If it involves something that might cost me my re-election or help Bush then we are against it."

Poland Honoring the Gipper?

It appears that some individuals in the world really do appreciate history. This group wants to tear down a Soviet statue in Poland and replace it with one honoring Ronald Reagan as a "beacon of liberty."

Wow. I'm speechles!

They only need $168000 dollars to do it. Where do I send my dollar for the cause? Heck, I'll pledge $10.

Edwards' America

For years you have heard that Democrats pay lip service to the poor from us evil Republican rich people. So how do you feel about Edward's house?

Romney's Cult?

It's becoming an important question: Are Mormons Christian? That answer is central to the answer of if Mormonism is a cult or not. I am a Christian and because Mormons assert that they too are Christian then the Bible will be our basis for examination of the question at hand.

Let's define Cult:
A religious group that follows a particular theological system. In the context of Christianity...it is a group that uses the Bible but distorts the doctrines that affect salvation sufficiently to cause salvation to be unattainable.
OR
A religious group which denies the essential doctrines of Christianity.

Let's define Christian:
Literal definition is to be like Christ.
Accurate definition is the belief in the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God and that through faith and belief in his ressurection as the salvation for our sin is the only method to get into heaven and avoid eternal damnation.

Let's define un-Christian:
Belief that actions, thoughts and behavior outside of a faith in Jesus will raise the spiritual level of a person after death
OR
Belief that there is no heaven or hell.

Now we will define Mormonism:
Joseph Smith was convinced in the 1820s (exact date somewhat debated in different versions of Joe's writings) that all protestant religions were false and that either one or two beings of light or angels appeared to him with golden tablets and a mission to preach a new gospel. God is a man (corporeal being) who came to Earth. The belief system asserts that God as a man had intercourse with the Virgin Mary to create Jesus.

Joseph Smith was very specific that the Bible was accurate and true and that nothing in the third testament should ever contradict it.

To attain a good seat in heaven a Mormon must abstain from alcohol, tobacco, caffeine,narcotics and any form of extra-marital sex. A Mormon must diligently work for the church and serve as a missionary for two years while barred from speaking with his family. A good Mormon will wear all white and volunteer to serve at the local temple. The armor of God is to be worn to protect them from enemy attack and that consists of "long underwear" with an embroidered fig leaf. They are urged to have many children.

Mormonism from a Christian perspective is based on the works of the individual. A good argument from them is that "faith without works is dead" an excellent biblical basis. However the Christian also recognizes this verse: "I will pay each of my laborers the same wage-regardless of work put in"

The IMPORTANT flaw in the Mormon theology is Paul's very blunt warning that completely contradicts the pivotal founding moment of Mormonism:
"Do not accept any additional information even if presented by a being of light."

I have never found any Mormon who could answer my question about Galatians 1:8.

To wrap up: Mormonism is a cult because it believes that Jesus was not formed supernaturally. It reports that the method to get to heaven is through work and being careful of what you eat and drink, not through the grace of Jesus. The formation of the religion is based on an event that is specifically mentioned as being a deception in the new Testament.

I would never say the Mormons are bad people. Most I have known are amazingly generous and kind. However being good does not get anyone into heaven, period.

Mortgage Insider

Here is an update from my perspective in mortgage lending as a loan officer:

First: people are still going to lending tree and getting totally hammered on fees and loving it. How stupid is that?

Second: If your credit ain't perfect the market is so radically changing it's scary.

Third: If you like your loan officer you will close with them. If you don't, you'll go somewhere else.

Since one and three are old news I'll get to the why of #2.

In the old days of mid 2005 there were hundreds of companies funding paper from brokers on less than perfect credit deals. Maybe you have heard of Wells Fargo or Saxon, but you have never heard of MLN or Sebring?

How those guys all worked was to write a check on a humongous credit line and fund the loans. Then they would go to their top three money guys who represent those investment fund groups where your 401k money is parked. Those guys would review the "stack" of loans and decide if they wanted them. If they like them, they wrote a check and took them. The investment guys never really understood how mortgage people make money so they just kept a small distance and protected themselves- at a margin cost because nobody works for free.

On the borrower's side that's where the note comes in the mail that your mortgage payment is going to Buffalo instead of Atlanta or Chicago instead of Tempe... etc.

Then something strange happened. The guys from those big investment houses finally decided to remove the middle man or at least eliminate a step. Leahman brothers, Bear-Stearns, ING, Dewey Cheatham and Howe-- or whoever just went out and wrote a big freaking check and bought the companies that were funding those loans. When that happened, they stopped buying stacks of paper from the myriad of companies selling them and only bought their own companies funded loans.

Time for pink slips. Old time big alternative paper lenders started dropping like flies. Sebring, Mortgage Lenders Network, and we are all betting Freemont to be next are going down. Decision 1- bought by household just 3 years ago- is seeing some serious rumors about a demise. Option 1 (owned by HR Block) has not made money in ages and has been for sale- not good omen.

If you have heard of Centex you will be happy to know you will never get a loan from those theiving jerks again. They are long gone. Same for Oak Street / Crestleigh Bankcorp and even United Financial Mortgage Corporation. All gone bye-bye. The death of these companies is a good thing for consumers, none of them ever closed a loan for less than 5% fees on the FRONT with up to 4% on the BACK on TOP of that outrageous fee!

Anyway, the market for low-credit-first time homebuyers is drying up thanks largely to a 30++% foreclosure rate in that paper last quarter. Thanks a lot! Ruin it for everyone! You have to have a 620 middle credit score and some reserves to do anything now. A year ago I could get a 560 score with no reserves and outstanding collections done at 100%. The 100% on a 580 can still be found but is harder to close than ever.

Did I mention that Equifax is still selling your mortgage and social security number information to anyone who wants it?

You Funded Perversion

A depiction of a 12 year old being raped and a man having sex with a farm animal might not be bad to you. If not, then you likely aren't concerned where our tax dollars are related to the subject matter so don't bother reading further.

As informed individuals might have heard, these were scenes from movies featured in fimls at the Sundance festival. The tax dollar connection is the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS sending money to Sundance. PBS is now only partially funded with tax dollars but the Endowment is totally funded with money that is drawn out of your paycheck and sent to the IRS.

Contact your representative today. I have an link to the congressional contact information on the right column, look for the picture of the capitol building below previous posts and above archives.

Rubicks Cheating

I am a child of the 80's and was glad to see the nostalgic comeback of the cube in the last few years as a short-lived fad. I fondly remember throwing mine away in teenage disgust the first time I owned one only to come back to it and get irritated again.

Eventually my friends took the stickers off and put them in the right place. This didn't ever look quite right so I took a screwdriver to mine and pried out a mid point outside piece and pulled the whole thing apart, reassembling the pieces correctly. The center squares are the axis/frame incase you wondered.

That was 15...no.. 17 (?) years ago?

One of my sales reps came by and dumped a bunch of these irritating puzzles on us with their logo prominently featured. It took a month before someone did the sticker thing to fix theirs. I have to pause and consider the subliminal ramifications of the cube as promotion for a B/C credit underwriting company. Much like the company that had pigs-with-wings with their logo (we said "you'll close with them when pigs fly") I must think that we are to cheat to assemble the file to make it look right for them to close? Maybe move the stickers around or a brute-force-screwdriver maneuver?

Now there is a better answer! (to the cube, not the loan)

Click on the link in the title and you can solve your rubick. That's right, follow the directions and tell the program where your cube is now. It will give you the moves to fix it.

The guy in the next cube did his in 80 moves. Kudos to whomever wrote this program!

As an aside, this was purely for fun and I stringently abide by every rule for mortgage lending in every file and never move the stickers or take a screwdriver to a file to make it work.

Drowning Polar Bears

Those poor cute fuzzy polar bears are going to drown! It's all my SUV's fault!

Riiiiight.

First fact: polar bears can swim a lot farther than you or I can.
Second fact: this isn't the first bear to be on an iceflow.
Third fact: we don't know enough about weather to predict next month, let alone 80 years from now.
Fourth fact: IF HUMANS decided to increase global temps on purpose by 2 degrees in a decade we could not do it.

Personally if I were going to apply a subject to this picture it would be: "HEY you with the camera; I'm bathing here! Go away before I come over there and maul you!"

BIG CHICKEN LITTLE

The UN has released a "difinitive report" that "man's actions are causing climate change, everybody run because the sky is falling."

Forgive me if I am a skeptic of anything the UN says:

My first instinct when I hear their report is to wonder who would benefit financially from this report and see if there is some cash being slid under the table to get it released.

My logical thought says if the UN can't feed children and protect refugees what exactly can they do to fix the weather?

Heck, they WON'T even enforce their own edicts/demands/sanctions. Why do they still have credibility?

God Does Love Osama

This is a classic example of the way society thinks versus the way a Christian is supposed to think. "GOD loves Osama" in front of an Australian Church is being villified as horribly wrong. The Austrailian Prime Minister has shown an amazing level of ignorance in his quote:

"I understand the Christian motivation of the Baptist church, But I hope they will understand that a lot of Australians, including many Australian Christians, will think that the prayer priority of the church on this occasion could have been elsewhere."

Should he have even opened his mouth on this topic?

Clearly sir, you don't understand. The priority of prayer and love is for those who attack you. We pray for those who are lost and decieved.