To the rescue!

Want to lower your house payment? Want to save hundreds of dollars each month? Well, the Rescuer in Chief has a deal you can't afford to pass up. In order to qualify, you have to meet the following criteria:

• Have little or no equity in your house. Note: you can accomplish this either by not making a down payment or by getting a second mortgage to "leverage" your equity.
• Take a three-month break from sending in a house payment.
• Make a really pouty-looking face while saying "My lender tricked me!" one hundred times as you stomp around in a circle.

You'd better hurry up if you want to take advantage of this special offer because only the first 400,000 home owners who apply will be accepted.

Please note, if you have been making your house payment on time each month you are not eligible for this incredible opportunity.

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Also, from the Department of Homeland Irony, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that in light of the newly signed legislation, "the Federal Housing Administration would begin right away to implement new policies 'intended to keep more deserving American families in their homes.'" As it turns out, banks have already found a way to determine which American families deserve to stay in their homes. It's the ones who send them a check each month.

Posted by Mike Wittmann
on July 30th, 2008, in Culture, Politics
Discuss This (0) | | Permalink

Into the great wide open

I read an article on Slashdot awhile back citing a study that "found a link between road rage and the number of personalized items on or in people's vehicles."

"The number of territory markers predicted road rage better than vehicle value, condition, or any of the things that we normally associate with aggressive driving,' says Szlemko. What's more, only the number of bumper stickers, and not their content, predicted road rage… Szlemko suggests that this territoriality may encourage road rage because drivers are simultaneously in a private space (their car) and a public one (the road). 'We think they are forgetting that the public road is not theirs, and are exhibiting territorial behavior that normally would only be acceptable in personal space,' the researcher says. (emphasis mine)

Contrast this with interactions along the bike path. People are generally friendly and courteous. They'll wave at each other and say hello as they pass. They will move aside to let someone going faster than them pass. I wonder how much of this is related to way people perceive the bike trail as a public place. Whether you're on a bike, inline skates, or walking/jogging, you're out in the open. There is no confusion about whose space is whose. Everybody's got to share. Everyone has to play nice.