Karl Marx reincarnates in San Francisco

"From each according to his abilities, to each...." Well if you're a landlord in SF you'll be giving your money to your tenants.

San Francisco laws bar rent over 33% of income

Well... its all part of Obama's plan to redistribute the wealth

Al Gore's religion refutted - Say bye to global warming!

Climate Change Reconsidered: A rebuttal to the Al Gore crowd via Powerline

The book is replete with detailed statistical data and arguments of the sort that global warming alarmists refuse to engage in. It contains far too much data to summarize, but here are the "key findings" in Chapter 3, titled "Observations: Temperature Records."

* The IPCC claims to find evidence in temperature records that the warming of the twentieth century was "unprecedented" and more rapid than during any previous period in the past 1,300 years. But the evidence it cites, including the "hockey-stick" representation of earth's temperature record by Mann et al., has been discredited and contradicted by many independent scholars.

* A corrected temperature record shows temperatures around the world were warmer during the Medieval Warm Period of approximately 1,000 years ago than they are today, and have averaged 2-3ºF warmer than today's temperatures over the past 10,000 years.

* Evidence of a global Medieval Warm Period is extensive and irrefutable. Scientists working with a variety of independent methodologies have found it in proxy records from Africa, Antarctica, the Arctic, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.

* The IPCC cites as evidence of modern global warming data from surface-based recording stations yielding a 1905-2005 temperature increase of 0.74ºC +/- 0.18ºC. But this temperature record is known to be positively biased by insufficient corrections for the non-greenhouse-gas-induced urban heat island (UHI) effect. It may be impossible to make proper corrections for this deficiency, as the UHI of even small towns dwarfs any concomitant augmented greenhouse effect that may be present.

* Highly accurate satellite data, adjusted for orbit drift and other factors, show a much more modest warming trend in the last two decades of the twentieth century and a dramatic decline in the warming trend in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

* The "fingerprint" or pattern of warming observed in the twentieth century differs from the pattern predicted by global climate models designed to simulate CO2-induced global warming. Evidence reported by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) is unequivocal: All greenhouse models show an increasing warming trend with altitude in the tropics, peaking around 10 km at roughly twice the surface value. However, the temperature data from balloons give the opposite result: no increasing warming, but rather a slight cooling with altitude.

* Temperature records in Greenland and other Arctic areas reveal that temperatures reached a maximum around 1930 and have decreased in recent decades. Longer-term studies depict oscillatory cooling since the Climatic Optimum of the mid-Holocene (~9000-5000 years BP), when it was perhaps 2.5º C warmer than it is now.

* The average temperature history of Antarctica provides no evidence of twentieth century warming. While the Antarctic peninsula shows recent warming, several research teams have documented a cooling trend for the interior of the continent since the 1970s.

Paul 4 - IRS 0

Well, the IRS struck out again in their quest to get more out of me through an audit. I've never been impressed by the knowledge of the auditors. They are friendly enough but I seem to always have to explain the tax laws to them.

Having your files organized and being able to document what you put on the tax form never ceases to impress an auditor. Must be that most people being audited don't have documentation.

To Hell with the Banks

I've always paid every credit card payment, every HELOC payment, every mortgage payment on time - for over 30 years now. Last summer the banks sent me multiple notices on every property eliminating my lines of credit, claiming that my properties were worth less (they weren't - property values continue to rise here)

In the last six weeks my two credit card companies have (without reason) tripled the interest rate on my cards. I have cancelled both cards. My credit score was excellent (over 750) but these banks have decided that those that make payments are going to bail out the looters that default on their credit cards. To hell with them. I will not pay another bank for credit card interest again.

Theives all of them

Who is John Galt?

The events of the past 4 months have left me deeply concerned about the country. The looters are in charge and making their best play to steal the wealth of many individuals who have worked to build a prosperous life for themselves. Obama's theft of Chrysler from the bondholders in payment to the autoworkers is the most outrageous public criminal act I have ever seen. Next he'll be seizing my rental property and giving it to the tenants.

If you don't know the references, read Atlas Shrugged. I think that the stock market is in the midst of a suckers rally and the next plunge will be deeper than the last. Based on what is happening inside my company I am not optimistic in the least. And the constant theft of property is not going to encourage any investment any time soon.

At least there are some free market capitalists left - unfortunately they are in China!

Another IRS audit

I'm beginning to think that there is an IRS conspiracy against rental property owners. I've received another notification for an IRS audit of my rental properly documents. This will be the 4th time I have been audited.

I'm not really worried about this. Three previous audits ended in no change and one gave me additional refund. But it is a pain to have to spend 3 hours with an auditor.

I wonder if the IRS tax cheat in chief (Geithner) will be audited as much as I have been?

Time to panic? Yes!

I've been watching my 401k for the past year trying to maintain my composure and not sell. All of the guru's tell you that the typical investor sells at the bottom and misses the rapid upturn. So I held and held and held my stocks waiting for the Messiah to turn the panic in the stock market around.

But now the Messiah thinks that the stock market is no more than a popularity poll and doesn't seem to care about it. The stock market losses since his election are the worst of any President in 90 years and there is no sign that he or his treasury sec. know what they are doing (except trying to nationalize health care, the utility industry through carbon taxes and the banks).

With no hope in sight, I finally decided to panic and sell all my stocks. I see no chance of the economy recovering for several years at this point. Looks like we are headed to European style government, growth and unemployment rates.