From the desk of Ken Bryant at Lake Chatuge on the state line between Hiawassee, GA and Hayesville, NC
Daily Real Estate News | January 21, 2010 |
Tax Credit Ignites Early Spring Selling Season
The homebuying season is starting early this year, thanks to the expanded first-time and move-up homebuyer tax credit.
Typically, the busiest time for home shopping starts in March and continues through May, but this year buyers who want to take advantage of the tax credits have to hold a signed contract by April 30 and close the deal by June 30.
That is getting people off the couch.
“The tax credit will absolutely have an effect,” says Pete Flint, CEO of residential real estate search engine Trulia.com. “It is going to shift demand from the later part of the year to the first part. January and February will be very strong. The next three months, there will be a surge in demand.”
Wow. I love Bob’s Red Mill. My wife and I shop at the company store every chance we get. They sell great quality grains, legumes, among other types of food, and in bulk, if you want it. I just had some of their 13 bean soup mix on Ash Wednesday, actually. The employees there have always been top notch and very helpful to us. All this is a backdrop for the bombshell that was dropped today: Bob Moore — the founder and owner of the company — is giving the entire works to his employees. Considering they only have 209 employees, this is a big, big deal:
“This is Bob taking care of us,” said Lori Sobelson, who helps run the business’ retail operation. “He expects a lot out of us, but really gives us the world in return.” Moore declined to say how much he thinks the company is worth. In 2004, however, one business publication estimated that year’s revenues at more than $24 million. A company news release issued this week stated that Bob’s Red Mill has chalked up an annual growth rate of between 20 percent to 30 percent every year since.
Wow. As an employee of a privately-held company, you really can’t expect this. You make an agreement to do your job at the best of your ability for an agreed upon package, mostly being salary. No complaints there, but this is pretty much a dream for these workers. Instead of only the executives getting the package, they’re all getting it. Neat.
We’ll find out now, I guess, how much of their success had to do with Bob Moore himself, and his company can keep succeeding so wildly at what they do. I know I’ll keep spending my cash there (from another privately held company, by the way).
Here’s a video about it on ABC News that, unfortunately, I’m unable to embed.
“Decolonization process affects the individual and fundamentally modifies him; it transforms crushed and unessential spectators to privilege actors. Decolonization introduces a proper rhythm to the newly created man, to the new languages, and a newer humanity. Man is liberated through the process and demands revisiting a set of questions in the integrality of the new situation: The damned spectators in the last rows want to edge to the first rows and then become full actors on the scene.
The damned of the earth want to smash the tribal and clannish conditions that colonial powers maintained to divide and subjugate. This kind of violence is a desintoxicating phase to getting rid of the inferiority complex. This initial violence tends to unify the damned of the earth toward national unity regardless of tribal and sectarian roots. Thus, this violence has no pity to reactionary forces that struggle to maintain colonial statue-quo.
The damned needs the post colonial violence to re-gaining self-esteem; he wants to believe that success was the work of all the damned, even if not a single shot was fired in many decolonization conditions. The damned is elevated to the rank of leader and refuses to confirm any single person as the “liberator” simply because he wants to understand everything and then to decide on every issue.
Illuminated by violence the conscience of the damned rebels against any sort of pacification program. The decolonized damned of the earth intend to demand from the colonial powers to rehabilitate man, his dignity, and his human rights. (1961)”
Frantz Fanon (1925-61) was born in French Martinique Island and died of cancer at the Bethesda hospital in Washington DC. He was buried, according to his will, in Algeria where he practiced as psychiatrist for four years (1954-57). Algeria acquired its independence the following year to Fanon’s death.
Fanon was engaged in the French Liberation Army in 1943 and received the war medal in 1945. He then studied psychiatry in Lyon; he adopted the vision of his mentor Francois Tosquelles (1912-94) that says that hospital should be the center of unifying the sick, nurses, and physicians for the sole objective of rehabilitating and re-inserting the sick to normal society.
Frantz was incensed to witnessing Creole people (mixed blood) in French colonies trying to behave as class apart of blacks and be accepted as white to the heavy price of deep amputation in their heritage and culture. Thus, Fanon published in 1952 his “Black skin, white mask” which is a study of the alienation of black people whose identity is defined by the others (white prejudiced culture).
“Race is a prison for black man; he is radically alienated into becoming an object. Black man should refuse to shoulder the burden of past slavery and thrives to catch up as man among men. Nigger is not; White too is not!
Mother, look at this nigger; I am scared: he wants to eat me live. Every white child is scared when he sees me. When a black man shivers of cold then the kid thinks that the black man is shivering of rage. I tended to get amused first but quickly this game turned impossible to suffer. It dawned on me that every apartheid attitude is fundamentally not based solely on color but on every culture that is different of the mainstream culture. (1952)”
Note: Fifty years after acquiring independence, most African States have reverted to tribalism and religious antagonism. The colonial and imperial powers have been at it indirectly: the enemy is not that obvious because black foremen and black intellectual are doing the maligning and the work hired by multinationals that are mostly directly backed by their respective powerful governments.
Gus Lubin and Lawrence Delevingne | Feb. 17, 2010, 11:51 AM
Hundreds of thousands of people have descended on Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Three billion are projected to follow on TV and 75 million more on vancouver2010.com.
And people around the world are learning to love obscure sports like curling and biathlon for a couple of weeks.
But before you get too caught up in the sports, remember that the Olympics have little to do with sports. They’re mostly about money.
In the United States, NBC demonstrates this every day — ruining the Olympics for millions of sports fans by tape-delaying events so it can show a highlight reel during prime time. (To their credit, other countries don’t do this: Our readers remind us every day how great the coverage is in Canada).
But NBC is just a small part of the global industry known as Olympics, Inc.
In the last four years (2005-2008), the International Olympic Committee (the owners and controllers of “Olympics, Inc.”) generated nearly $6 billion of revenue. For the next cycle, revenues are on track to be significantly higher, with Vancouver already doubling Turin for domestic sponsorship.
It’s enough to make you look twice at the IOC, which is based conveniently in tax-haven Switzerland.
Although the IOC is a non-profit organization, employment (“membership”) in the organization is a cushy job with many benefits.
Where does all that money come from and go? Is anyone making a profit? And who put the IOC in charge anyway?
We bring you the answers here. See the secret $6 billion world of the IOC >
Did a dog on two feet taken a bite off your kid? (Feb. 17, 2010)
“Every black man who teaches another black person to extend the other cheek when attacked is robbing the newly freed Negro of his natural rights to defend his moral and intelligence rights. Why everyone in nature has the rights to defend his life save the American blacks?
Everytime a dog on two feet bites your wives and children, if anyone among you stands up for leader to compromise with this rabid dog for a job in the city then, I say this leader is faked. A Negro has to rely on his inner strength, will, and education to get ahead and be someone of value.
Integration is but an astute gimmick of white people to shock blacks into lethargy; making him believes that white folks can change. White people in America have sawn crimes against humanity for centuries; it is time for them to reap our thunder.
Why is it that Jews are presidents of black organization such as NAACP? Did they ever consider any black to head B’nai B’rith or any of their associations? When we prove that Jews in the USA are exploiting black people in the ghettoes in the northern cities (90% of Jewish trades are targeting blacks) then they shout “anti-Semite”. Deep in their soul Jews know they are hiding their culpability; they have this sensibility to believe they are targeted when exploitation is mentioned. They are right to feel that way because they preferred to exploit blacks’ hard earning rather than taking them for slaves.” (Extract of an interview by Malcolm X, 1963)
Malcolm Little, known as Malcolm X (1925-65), did prison term (1946-52) and then got engaged with Nation of Islam. His highly valued oratory skills made Elijah Muhammad apprehensive that Malcolm X was quickly usurping his authority within the Black Moslems brotherhood. Thus, by 1963, Malcolm took his distances and started his own black organization. Elijah Muhammad backed by the FBI assassinated Malcolm X in 1965.
Malcolm X was an influential leader among the young generations in the northern US cities; he went on pilgrimage to Mecca and visited many African States that recently acquired their independence from colonial powers. Malcolm X program was to establishing an independent black state in the southern part of the USA before re-immigrating to Africa, the homeland of the black slaves.
The Black Panthers, headed by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, as well as Black Power, headed by Stokeley Carmichael, echo Malcolm X positions for organizing black people into auto-defense institutions.
Note: I opened a new category “Black culture/ Creole”.
Apart from his fondness for haikus, and his giggle-inducing name, it’s hard to think of anything interesting to say about Herman Van Rompuy, the first president of the European Council. In fact, the whole point of the Belgian’s election was the avoidance of color and interest: they were looking for a low-profile eurocrat with a record of patiently building relationships, one whose focus was internal rather than external. As the Economist points out: “For all his merits, Mr Van Rompuy’s main experience of an international dispute as prime minister is the Belgo-Dutch row over the dredging of the River Scheldt.”
But one interesting thing about Mr Van Rompuy is his Catholicism, about which he makes no bones. He was educated (drumroll, s’il vous plaît) by Jesuits in Brussels, went onto the Catholic University of Leuven, and in the 1980s wrote a book about Christendom as a modern idea. He is, in short, a bearer of the torch first lit by the Catholic architects of European unity– De Gasperi, Schuman, Adenauer — who, like Van Rompuy, were all Christian Democrats for whom faith and Europe went together.
In 2004, when he was an opposition deputy, Van Rompuy objected to Turkey joining the EU in terms very similar to those used by the then Cardinal Ratzinger (h/t to Tom Heneghan at Reuters, who puts the two quotes side by side): namely that Turkey’s Islamic character would dilute the Christian character of the EU.
That kind of talk makes me queasy. But I am impressed by a speech (in French) Van Rompuy gave on Caritas in Veritate which he carries on his website. It shows a sophisticated grasp of Catholic social doctrine.
Dull he may be, but I for one am delighted that at the heart of the European Union is a politician who can write (my trans):
According to [Catholic] social doctrine, the political community is at the service of the civil society from which it is born. Civil society represents the sum total of the goods, cultural or relational, which are relatively independent of politics and the economy. The state should make sure that the legal framework allows the social actors (societies, associations, organisations, and so on) to carry out their activities in total freedom; it should be ready to intervene, only if needed and in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity, in order that the interaction between freedom of association and the democratic way leads in the direction of the common good.”
Hiromori Maedomari, editorialist for the Okinawa-based Ryukyu News Company, argues that the idea that the US military presence in Okinawa props up the local economy is a myth. Précis of article in February edition of current affairs journal ‘Sekai’.
Maedomari begins by arguing that the answer to the question of whether the Okinawan economy is viable without the US military presence would be a resounding ‘yes’ and comments that the bases are more of a parasite on the local economy than a support and that local opinion is that the time has come to give it a taste of its own medicine. While the bases did contribute to the relative wealth of the region for a period during their construction and, particularly, during the Vietnam War when US soldiers had money in their pockets to burn before heading overseas to fight – during this ‘bubble’ period, the local people had no choice but to depend on the economic opportunities afforded by their ‘generosity’. Formerly an agricultural island, Okinawa lost most of its farmable land to the predatory expansion of the US military zones. With nowhere to work or live the local people became dependent on handouts from the US occupiers and a large pool of labour was created to work for the construction companies that built the bases and associated properties – by 1950, it is estimated that over 50% of the local economy was dependent on this demand for roads (eg., Route 58), ports (Naha Military Port), airports (Kadena, Futenma, Iejima, etc.), the associated sewerage infrastructure, in addition to the libraries and other public buildings necessary for the maintenance of a stable civil society. The burden of all this work was borne by the local people and was the main foundation of the post-war recovery process.
After the initial construction boom and after the end of the Vietnam War, it became apparent that the economy had become severely skewed in the direction of providing entertainment and solace for members of the US military. Useful tax revenue was extremely low and the disassociation of economic activity from actual local needs hindered the development of healthy, independent economic activity. The consumerist economy focused on the needs of the foreign military presence that developed after the war has seen no need for the actual production base that exists in Okinawa. Propped up also by handouts from the Japanese government, the market mechanism is not properly earthed in the local region – far more than local business conditions or events, the economy is affected by international power politics. Through all this, the Okinawan people have never had their voice heeded nor their right to express opposition to the effectively-occupying force recognized – instead they have been brutally sucked into a cruel era in which history has forced on them an economic structure which leaves them dependent for their livelihoods on an un-opposable foreign military presence.
Some statistics are quoted in the article from data collected by the Okinawa Prefecture US Base Policy Response Agency. In March 2008, there were 34 American military installations in Okinawa prefecture, occupying 23,293 hectares of land or 10.2% of the entire prefecture, and 18.4% of Okinawa island itself. 25% of US military installations in Japan are located in Okinawa, accounting for 23% of the total land area occupied by the US military in the whole country. 38.8% of the military installations operated exclusively by the US military (as opposed to being operated in cooperation with the Japanese SDF) are located in Okinawa prefecture. Okinawa prefecture itself makes up no more than 0.6% of the total land mass of Japan, yet despite this carries the burden of 48% of the total number of military installations in the country. Of the 33,286 US soldiers in Japan, 64% are based in Okinawa prefecture; of those 86% are the US Marines typically involved in many of the crimes, incidents and accidents that plague the local society. This is before any mention is made of the traumatizing noise pollution created in the course of their daily activities.
There have been approximately 5,584 criminal incidents involving members of the US military in the 36-year period (1972-2008) since Okinawa was officially returned to Japan. Of those, murder, armed robbery, arson and rape accounted for 559 cases. There are over 100 serious traffic accidents involving US military-associated vehicles each year, and the numbers have been increasing in the last 5 years to around 160-180 accidents a year. Related deaths number between 2 and 5 people each year, with over 200 people being injured. In many cases, proper investigation of the accidents is prevented and those responsible are rarely insured properly to allow for compensation payments to their victims.
Under US military rule, Okinawa was kept separate from the mainland through their support of a Ryuukyuu Government Organization, the primarily agricultural workforce were redirected into construction and industry (16.7% of the workforce), employed on US bases or nearby in commercial entreprises (77.5%) and the exchange rate between the dollar and yen was artificially distorted (the ‘B yen’ was worth about a third of the mainland currency) which had the effect of removing any incentives to produce goods for ‘export’ and made the economy heavily dependent on imports, an effective containment and control fiscal policy which aimed to harmonize the Okinawan economy with the American. Thus, the agricultural prefecture of Okinawa was forcefully transformed into a service-based economy dependent on the custom of the American military. The revenue stream was generally directed out of the region and the local economy did not prosper as much as might be expected from the visual transformation that it underwent.
